A Chance Meeting Between Enemies
by ReadingIsForNerds
Summary: The Herondales and Morgensterns are mob families that control all of New York on very uneasy terms. Clary and Jace meet and begin a relationship, not knowing who the other is. What will happen when they find out and one of them betrays the other; or so they think. Where will their loyalties lie when the going gets rough? Clace
1. Chapter 1

"B..but...but Miss. Morgenstern. I don't have the money right now." Hodge Starkweather stammered nervously. Clary Morgenstern was as beautiful as she was dangerous. Her heels clicked loudly on the concrete in a dingy cellar and resonated back off of the walls at him like the sound was mocking him. Her guards had him chained to a pillar that was almost too big around for his arms to fit. He sat awkwardly on the cold and wet floor as she slowly circled him. Her expensive fur coat hung loosely off of one of her shoulders while her dress was black with long sleeves and a plunging neck line while it clung tightly to her every curve. Her bright red hair stood out against the darkness of the basement and her porcelain skin. It looked like it would omit the warmth of the sun if you got close enough to it.

"That sounds like a personal problem Hodge." she said to him, sounding like she was talking to a disobedient child. "My father gave you an extra week to come up with a payment and now...nothing." She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly as she came to a stop in front of him. He didn't dare slide his eyes up her beautiful legs like he had done before. This was not the time for that so he kept his eyes down and on his outstretched feet in front of him.

"It's not my fault." Hodge said pleadingly. "The delivery truck with the electronics was three days late. They are on the shelf at my store now and I am having a sale tomorrow. I can have the money in two days."

"But Hodge," Clary said as she crouched down in front of him. Her two body guards took a small step closer to her because of her proximity to Hodge. "..the second deadline was yesterday. You have already had more than enough time. What am I supposed to tell my father?" Hodge turned his head up to look at her questioning face. It almost looked apologetic. "He will be _very_ upset to hear about your misfortunes that are now spilling over and becoming his misfortunes."

"Please, Miss. Morgenstern." Hodge practically whispered pleadingly to her. "I have three kids."

"And that is why you should make your payments on time." she says scoldingly and stands back up. She looks to the two big and burly men that are at her sides. "Make Mr. Starkweather look pretty for his big sale tomorrow." she said in a slightly happy tone. "Maybe a little black and blue around the eyes and blood red on his lips."

"Yes ma'am." the two men said in unison as Clary leaned against the far wall to watch and folded her arms loosely across her chest like she was bored. The two men smiled as they approached Hodge who began to feel warmth spreading in his pants. He looked down and saw that his fear had gotten the best of him and he had starting urinating on himself.

"Disgusting coward." one of the men muttered as he came closer and pulled the terrified man to his feet while he was still handcuffed behind his back around the pillar. The first blow to his face felt like he had been hit with a barbwire wrapped baseball bat. His head swung roughly to the side while his brain stayed in the same place. Before he could register that pain fully, he was doubling over as much as he could as he choked from the blow the second guy gave to his abdomen.

The beating went on for what seemed like an eternity to Hodge Starkweather. He felt like he had won a million dollars when he heard Clary's voice through the ringing in his ears say, "I think that is good enough."

One of the men stepped away as the other went to free Hodge from the handcuffs. As soon as they were gone, he fell to his knees and then onto his side. The pillar had been the only thing holding him up. "Two days, Hodge. Then things will get serious." he heard her call as the sound of her clicking heels gave away that she was moving towards the stairs.

Clary reaches the top of the stairs and receives a few curious looks from the patrons in the cigar store her father owns as she came through the front of the store with two large men who had blood splattered on their clothes. Someone would go down there and drag Hodge out of the back door. She had done her job and now was moving on. "Who's next?" she asks over her shoulder at Jordan, her favorite of her two guards.

"Jeremy Pontmercy." Jordan says as he looks down at his blackberry. "Says he is two days late and has started to pack his belongings."

"Poor Jeremy." Clary says as Kirk, her other guard, opens the door to the back of a blacked out SUV. She slides in all the way and Jordan slips in the back with her. Kirk shuts the door and moves up front and sits in the passenger seat and gives the driver an address.

Clary slides her fur coat that her father bought her last year for Christmas off and tosses it behind her. She didn't particularly like the two collection days a week that she had to go on. It interfered with her art tutor and her time with her best friend Maia. Although she did enjoy watching men and women shake at the sight of her after giving her appreciative looks. She may be small but she could scare someone witless with just one glance.

Her father was a notorious mob boss that had control of the burrows of Brooklyn and Queens. Manhattan and the Bronx belonged to the Herondales. There was a huge turf war forty-five years ago when the two families fought for control of the whole metropolitan area. Things got really out of hand and Clary's grandmother and aunt were killed while the Herondale's boss's wife was killed as well. Because of this, they decided that enough was enough. Both of their clans had been cut in half and they were both feeling the effects of it. The two heads had sat down alone and worked out an uneasy agreement that the Morgensterns would get Brooklyn and Queens while the Herondales got Manhattan and the Bronx. It wasn't ideal but it was what had to be done to maintain what control they still had on their areas. The two heads would meet once a year still to maintain the peace.

"How many more after that?" Clary asks looking over at Jordan tiredly. "I really want to finish that painting of the old church that I have been working on."

"Just two more after this next one." he says in answer to her. She sighs as she looks out of the window at the passing street. Sometimes she wonders what it would have been like if her father wasn't who he was. If her mother hadn't fallen in love with him when he came to collect from the art gallery her pieces were showing in. They have one of the most romantic love stories and it's not like her life was all that bad. Sure there were a few things that she had to do but all in all, it was pretty easy being her.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, in Manhatten...**

Jace Herondale walks out of his penthouse apartment wearing a cleanly pressed and tailored to perfection dark blue suit. His golden blonde hair is pushed perfectly back and his golden eyes are alight with the excitement of a new day. He has always been a morning person. His two body guards have been waiting patiently for him on either side of his door. "What's the schedule for today?" he asks as he looks to his left at little Max Lightwood that wasn't so little anymore. He was now 20 years old and as tall as six foot two Jace. He did his best friend Alec a favor by giving him this job for a year so he could save up for college. His parents were rich but cut him off when he refused to become a lawyer like his father and older brother. Apparently, there was a very illustrious line of Lightwoods going back to the Mayflower who were famous lawyers. When he told them he wanted to be an archaeologist, his father practically kicked him out and told him he was a disgrace because he wanted to 'play in the dirt' for a living.

"A meeting with your father's second (Michael Wayland) and then we have a collection." Max says as he scrolls further down on his phone. "Hodge Starkweather." he says as he looks back up to Jace.

"God. Him again." Jace groans. "He was late last month. I know that he also has a store in Brooklyn but I am assuming that we aren't going there."

"No, sir." Max says as he straightens out. "He is supposed to be in his Manhattan store this afternoon."

Just then, the door to his penthouse opens up and a leggy brunette slips into the hallway wearing a dress that was highly inappropriate for daytime. She looks up at Jace and gives him a seductive smile as she walks over to him. She tries to reach up and kiss him but he leans away. "Sorry darling." he says with a slight smile. "What we had was beautiful and I will never forget it but it's over now...Jessica?" Jace says unsurely.

"It's Jennifer." she replies flatly and Jace smile widely as he snaps his fingers like he just remembered. "But I was close, eh? You should give me some credit for that." he says with a smile at her and she narrows her eyes at him slightly before tucking her clutch under her arm and walking towards the elevator without a word.

"You are such a charmer." his other body guard, Trevor, says with a smirk. His eyes then travel appreciatively up and down the scantily clad brunette as she waits for the elevator to arrive.

"You know it." Jace says with a smile as the elevator dings, signalling it's arrival. They all move towards the elevator and join a surprised Jennifer as she watches them with slightly agitated eyes. "Don't be too upset darling." Jace says as they reach the bottom floor and the doors open. "You seemed to enjoy yourself last night. That should give you more than enough memories to hold you over for a few years."

"Ugh." she huffs out clearly annoyed and pushes through the men. Jace smiles amused after her as he watches her storm off.

"I _am_ a charmer." Jace says with an amused tone as he makes his way towards the front doors of his upscale building.

"How are you today, Mr. Herondale?" the doorman asks brightly as he swings the door open for him.

"I am doing great!" he says as he passes and tucks a twenty into the man's coat pocket as he passes. "Let's get this day started." Jace says brightly as he opens the door to a blacked out and bullet proof SUV and slides into the back. "Let's go see what Mr. Wayland wants." he says as he pulls out his phone and pulls up his best friend Alec's number.

He answers on the third ring sounding very professional. "Yes, this is Alexander Lightwood."

"It's me Alec!" Jace says brightly into the phone. "Do you want to have brunch in a few hours? I have a meeting with Michael and then I have a few hours before I have to be anywhere else."

"Um," Alec says and it sounds like he pulls his phone away from his face for a minute, probably to check his schedule. "I actually don't have court then. That sounds good. Where at?"

"There is a new restaurant called Taki's. It's supposed to be top notch." Jace tells him.

"I know the place." Alec replies. "I'll see you at 10?"

"See you then." Jace says with a smile and then hangs up. "Did I ever tell you, Max, that I love my life?" Jace says as he looks to Max beside him.

"Only everyday." he replies with a smile and rolls his eyes.

"I have all the money I could ever want, stunningly amazing good looks, and all I have to do is 'learn the business side of things' as my father would say." Jace says with a wide grin. "He knows I am ready to take over if need be. He just won't admit to me that I am."

"You definitely don't have a lack of the self confidence that is needed for the job." Max says with a laugh as they round another corner and he can see the building they are headed to just up ahead.

"Why would I?" he replies as he smooths down his suit with his hands. "After all, I am stunningly good looking."

"God." Max says exasperatedly. "I don't know how Alec has put up with spending so much time with you over the years."

"It's because of my..." Jace starts to say with smirk before Max cuts him off. "Don't you _dare_ say it again."

Jace lets out a laugh as they pull up to the curb and Trevor jumps out of the front seat. He looks up and down the street and then nods to Max who then opens the door and scoots out. Jace follows quickly behind and walks straight in the upscale building. "Good morning, Gretchen." Jace says as he passes by the forty year old receptionist and gives her a wink.

"Good morning Mr. Herondale." she says flirtatiously back at him as he moves to the elevators in the lobby. "He is on the thirty-first floor today." Gretchen calls out and Jace's happy mood is suddenly gone. The thirty-first floor was the floor where all of the really serious business took place. It had extra security and was swept for bugs and wire taps every morning. Whatever the meeting was about, it was sure to put a damper on his mood even further. The last time he met Michael Wayland on the thirty first floor was when his father had found out about one of his bodyguards had been cozying up to the police man that lived next door to him. He had to be the one to 'handle' the problem. He hated to do that because he actually liked the guy. His cop friend found him the next day after he 'committed suicide' in his apartment.

"Well, here goes nothing." Jace says as he steps onto the elevator when it slides open. Trevor reaches down and pushes the number 31 and up they went. When the doors opened again, he was greeted by Michael's four guards. "Mr. Wayland requested that your body guards remain with us during the duration of your meeting."

"Alright." Jace says and continues forward and down the long hall that leads to Michael's office. When he reaches it, he gives it a few raps and then hears a deep voice say 'come in' and then he opens the door. Jace steps in the grand wood paneled office and looks towards the ornate desk at the far end of the room. Behind it sat Michael as he read something on his phone. Jace shut the door behind him and walked over towards the two wing-back leather chairs that sat in front of him. He looked up and gave Jace a tight smile. "Jace. It's so good to see you again." Michael says as he rises from his chair. He reaches across his desk and shakes Jace's hand.

"It's good to see you too, Michael." he answers back as he unbuttons his suit coat and sits down in the chair on his left.

"How have you been these past couple of weeks?"

"I have been great." Jace replies as he crosses his legs. "What brings me in here today?"

The look on Michael's face grows serious then. He looks across at the handsome young man and his eyes suddenly look more tired and older. "One of your father's oldest friends has been talking to the FBI. We found out two days ago but it took some convincing for your father to believe it. I had to play him the recordings of the person talking with an FBI agent for him four times before he finally accepted it."

This _was_ serious and the reason he was telling Jace was because he was going to have to be the one to handle it. "Who is it Michael?" Jace asks flatly. This is the only part of his job that he doesn't like. Taking the life of someone he has known for a long time.

"It's Amatis Greymark." Michael says sadly.

"Amatis?!" Jace says loudly with surprise. Amatis has been like an aunt to him since he was a baby. She was his father's first wife. She left him when she found out he was cheating on her with Jace's mother who he later married. Even though their marriage ended on bad terms, they still were friends and she started to run the books for the family. Never in a million years did he think that she would betray them. "I can't believe it." Jace says somberly.

"I know what you mean." Michael says sadly. "But we have all of the evidence we need. We have already started to move all of the money to different accounts so the FBI won't get their hands on it. We don't know what she has already told them."

"But why would she turn on us? After all of these years?" Jace asks of no one in particular. The shock of the news was still making it's way through his body.

"I don't know, Jace." Michael replies as he runs a hand through his peppered blonde hair. "Maybe she finally got tired of waiting for your father to come back to her. You know that is what she has hoped for all of these years."

"I'm just still in shock." Jace says.

"I know." the older man says as he pulls out a cigar and lights it up. "But you know what has to be done and you are the best person to take care of it. She won't see it coming from you."

Jace looked back up to his father's second and stared at him blankly. Sure he has had to take care of some of his father's rogue associates before but never any that were as ingrained into his family as Amatis was. "I know. It's just that it's going to be hard to do."

"But it has to be done." Michael adds on and stands up signaling that the meeting was over. Jace rose quickly after him and turned to walk out of the office while buttoning his suit coat. He shut the office door behind him and walked still a little dazed to where his guards were and straight to the elevator. The two men saw the distressed look on his face and decided against asking him what the meeting was about. They would find out soon enough.

The elevator doors opened up and they moved into them and rode the long ride down in a very loaded silence. When they got to the bottom and stepped out, Jace pulled out his phone and dialed Amatis's number. She picked up on the fourth ring. "Hello?"

Jace took a deep breath and when he spoke, his voice was bright and cheery. "Amatis! It's me."

"Good morning Jace." she says brightly back to him. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I was thinking that we haven't seen each other in almost a month and I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me tonight and catch up?"

"That sounds wonderful." Amatis replies. He could tell that she was smiling as she talked and he suddenly felt a little bit of anger towards her. How could she do that to him? How could she try to put him and his father in jail if she said she cared as much as she did. "How does eight sound?" Jace asks.

"Eight sounds perfect." she replies.

"Dress nice. I want to take you to your favorite place. That French restaurant uptown." he tells her as they reach outside.

"Jace Herondale." she says playfully. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to woo me."

"Maybe I am." Jace said playfully back at her and she laughed. "Alright. Eight it is."

"See you then." Amatis replies before she hangs up the phone. Jace slides into the back of the SUV and Max is right behind him. He still doesn't want to talk about it so he turns to look out of the opposite window as they take off. 'At least her last meal will be a good one' he thinks to himself as the hurt begins to replace itself with anger.

* * *

 **-Clary**

"So you want to take me to a French restaurant this evening?" she asks her on again and off again boyfriend of two years. Right now they are on again but she is looking for a way to break it off permanently. He has become way too clingy and annoying. All he ever talks about is how successful he is and how he knows to play the market like a fiddle. That is one of the reasons that Valentine Morgenstern keeps him around. He is good with money.

"I do." Sebastian replies on the other end of the line. "I have heard nothing but great things about it."

"Alright." Clary says as they pull up to the next collection point. "Listen. I have to go. Pick me up at 8?"

"I'll be there." he says and then starts to say 'I love you' but Clary just hangs up the phone before she breaks it off right then and there. Her father would want her to do it in person to keep everyone on good terms so he could keep his little pet. "God, I can't take it any longer." she says exasperatedly as Jordan looks over to her. "I am done with him. I am breaking up with him tonight."

"Will you need us to be there?" Jordan asks as he gestures between the two burly men.

"No. I think one of Father's guards is on duty with me tonight. He will have to hang back anyway since this will technically be a date. You take Maia out tonight. I know the two of you haven't been on a date in almost a month."

"That's because she tells you everything about us." Jordan says with a huff and opens the door. He holds out his hand for Clary to help her out of the car while Kirk got her coat out of the back and slid it up her arms for her. It was the first week of November and the breeze was cold through the thin material of her long sleeved black dress. "Jordan. I feel like hearing my song while we collect for this one." Clary says as she starts to walk into the small barber shop.

Jordan pulls out the miniature speaker and connects his phone and hits play. The song "Bitch Better Have My Money by Rihanna starts to blare through the speaker. Clary swayed her hips a little to the music as she sang along, the picture of ease as she strolled over to Jeremy. "So..." Clary says nonchalantly and with an easy smile, "my Father tells me that you are over three thousand short for this month."

The older man swallowed harshly as she reached across the counter he was behind and ran her fingers down his shirt lightly and smiled up at him seductively. What they said was true. She could turn you on and scare the life out of you at the same time. "I promise, Miss. Morgenstern." he gets out with a shaky voice. "I will have the money by next week."

"That's no good." she says as she stands back up. "You have two days and then I will be back." She turns and starts to walk out of the barber shop as she sings along to the song loudly,

 _Ya'll should know me well enough_

 _(Bitch better have my money)_

 _Please don't call me on my bluff_

 _Pay me what you owe me_

 _Ballin bigger than LeBron_

 _Bitch, give me your money_

 _Who ya'll think your frontin' on?_

The door swings shut behind her and he finally feels like he can breathe again. He'd better find a way to get that money...and soon. As beautiful as Clarissa Morgenstern is, you definitely don't ever want her to come back.


	2. Chapter 2

Jace was immediately seated at one of the best tables inside of Taki's. It was in the corner of the room and secluded. Apparently, they already knew who he was. This was a regular occurrence with him though. If you wanted to open a nice restaurant, you had better know who you will be serving and what they do for a living. You wouldn't want to piss off the wrong person. "Your waiter will be right with you." the hostess said with a smile as he sat down at the table. He wasn't surprised to find that Alec wasn't there yet. A lot of the times he got hung up in court but he always showed up. The waiter showed up and took drink orders and brought them back before Alec got there finally.

"Sorry I'm late." Alec says apologetically to Jace. "I got hung up when a judge tried to ask me for more money."

"They can be some greedy bastards, can't they?" Jace says as he looks down at the menu. "They know what the going rate is yet they still try to get more every few months." He looked up to see Alec smiling at him and wondered what his deal was. "You seem like you are in a good mood." Jace remarks as he sets his menu down.

"That's because I am." Alec answered. "I met someone."

"That's great!" Jace said animatedly as he smiles brightly at him. For some reason, Alec's face falls just a little before he smooths his face back out. "What's his name?"

"Um..." Alec says as he pulls his menu up and in front of his face, almost like he wants to hide behind it. "his name is Magnus."

"What the hell kind of a name is that?" Jace says playfully as he takes a sip of his water.

"He's an up and coming fashion designer. Izzy introduced me to him."

"Well that's just great, Alec." Jace says again brightly. "It's about time you found someone you like and stopped living like a celibate monk."

"I just kept waiting for that one guy to notice me but...he never did." Alec says a little glumly. "Maybe he will now that I am seeing someone."

Jace reaches across the table and pulls down Alec's menu away from his face. "I keep telling you to just tell this guy, whoever he is, that you like him. Stop being so damn shy."

"It's more complicated than that." Alec says as he looks back down at the menu.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't." Jace says nonchalantly. "I guess you will never know because you will never fess up to the mystery man."

They sit in silence for a little while and the waiter takes their orders before either of them speak again. "What are you doing tonight?" Alec asks Jace. "Do you want to meet him?"

Jace shifts uncomfortably in his seat while all traces of amusement are wiped off of his face. "I am having dinner with Amatis. I'll be busy."

"Why the long face though?" Alec asks curiously. Usually he would be happy about seeing her.

Jace debates in his head for a minute if he should tell him or not. Alec is his lawyer and on his Father's payroll which means the conversations they have between each other are privileged and he would never be able to tell anyone else. He would find out eventually but Jace didn't feel like being the one to tell him. There were some things that are better for him to find out after they have already been done. Even though they had grown up together and were friends who knew everything about each other, he still didn't like telling him about all of the things he had done and things that he had to do.

"No reason." Jace says with shrug of his shoulders. "I think I maybe gave the girl I brought home last night my number."

"Oh no." Alec says dramatically. "The horror." and they both let out a round of laughter; the previous subject forgotten.

* * *

 **-Clary**

"Finally." Clary says with exasperation as she walks into the mansion nestled on the edge of a park. The home of the Morgenstern family was made out of four homes that used to be a townhomes in the thirties. It was beautifully redone by her grandmother before she was killed. It sits off by itself at the end of a dead end street with a park surrounding it. It's where Clary grew up with her mother, father, and older brother Jonathan. "Is anyone home?" she shouted out and her voice echoed off of the marble floors.

"In here honey." her mother calls from the back of the house. She walks past the kitchen, stopping to grab an apple, and then continues on to the sunroom out back where her mother likes to paint. "Hey mom. How's it going today?"

"I just can't seem to get the shading right on this damn tree." she points to the tree in the painting of central park she was commissioned to do by some wealthy socialite. Father hates her working for anyone but it's what she loves so he doesn't complain too much about it.

"Here." Clary says as she picks up a paint brush and dips it in the whitish green color that her mother mixed. "It just needs some light right here." she says as she dabs under the tree's leaves, giving the illusion that sunlight is breaking through the leaves of the tree.

"That's genuis, Clary." her mother says brightly as Clary hands her the brush back.

"Sometimes all you need is a different perspective." the younger woman says. "I'm going to go finish my painting."

"Sebastian called and said that you two are going out tonight." her mother calls as she is walking away.

"Ugh." Clary moans quietly. She hates what a suck up he is to her parents. That is another reason why she is breaking it off with him. "Yeah. We're going to some French restaurant." she yells as she reaches the stairs and begins to climb them up to her room and art studio on the third floor.

"Well, have fun." her mother yells back brightly as her voice becomes more distant with each step.

* * *

It's ten minutes till eight and Clary is checking herself one last time before she goes downstairs to wait for Sebastian. She walks over to the full length mirror in her lavish walk-in closet and smooths out her dress one last time. The dress she was wearing looked fairly modest at first glance. It was a deep eggplant color that was fitted all the way through her hips and hung loosely from her mid thigh down. There was a high slit up her right leg that went practically all the way up to her hip. The top of the dress was fitted tightly and came up to just below her color bone and had long sleeves that went to her wrists. The most revealing part of the dress was when she turned around. It was completely backless, all of the way down to the top of her butt and all the way to the sides of her. She loved her back. It was probably the sexiest thing about her.

She pushed her wavy hair to one side and made sure her makeup was still perfect and then made her way downstairs. Just as she reached the bottom, the door bell rang. As she was walking to the door, her mother appeared with her father at her side. They were both smiling warmly at her. "You look lovely tonight, darling." her father said stepping forward and placing a kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks, Daddy." she says with a smile back at him. Her mother steps forward then with a goofy smile on her face and wraps her in a tight hug before kissing her on the cheek as well. "What's the big deal?" Clary asks her parents when she steps away from them. "The both of you are acting strange. It feels weird with the two of you watching me like it's prom night."

"Can't a father just remark on how beautiful his daughter turned out to be?" her father says with false hurt in his voice.

"Sure you can." Clary says suspiciously as she moves to the door. She shakes her head exasperatedly and opens the door where Sebastian is waiting on the other side with a huge bouquet of about three dozen red roses. He is dressed in a beautiful tailored black suit that matches the color of his hair perfectly and makes him look like a male model. He is an incredibly attractive man and that is one of the reasons she went out with him in the first place.

"Sebastian." Clary said surprised. "What's the special occasion?" she asks as she takes the roses from him.

"No particular reason." he says as he leans in a gives her a quick chaste kiss. "I just wanted to get my girl some flowers."

"Here." her mom Jocelyn says, appearing behind Clary. "I'll take them and put them in some water."

"Thanks mom." Clary says back to her and then steps out of the house. "Are you ready?" she asks him.

"More than ever." Sebastian replies and holds a hand out for her to hold as she navigates down the front steps to her house. She takes it and then they are heading towards his Mercedes. "You look incredible tonight, love." Sebastian says looking her up and down.

"Thank you." she says as they reach the bottom. He runs ahead and opens the door for her and she slides in. One of her father's guard hops in a car behind them to follow them and lay low. He is there to protect her but be invisible at the same time. He is very good at his job because she only sees him if she really looks for him when she goes out at night. Sebastian opens his door and slides in and they make the drive into Manhattan for a what is sure to be a really awkward dinner once she tells him that she wants to break up for good. It was fun while it lasted but he was never going to be the 'one'.

They pull up to the curb outside of the five star restaurant and Sebastian hops out of the car and tosses his keys to the valet. He then opens Clary's door to help her out of the car. She sticks her leg out and the split up the side opens up to show her beautiful leg as her heel touches the ground. She earns quite a few appreciative stares from the valets out front and some of the people walking by down the street. Once inside, they are immediately seated in one of the more secluded parts of the restaurant with only about five other tables behind them. Sebastian hands the host a fifty and thanks him for the wonderful table and he walks away with a huge smile on his face.

"What was that for?" Clary asks him. He has always been incredibly stingy with his money and never tips over fifteen percent. That's another reason she is breaking up with him. He's too obsessed with his money.

"I am just in a good mood tonight." he says with an easy smile. "I have the most stunning woman in all of New York on my arm while all of the other men in this restaurant drool over her and think about how lucky I am."

She gives him an uneasy smile as she picks up her menu and starts to look over the entrees. "Thank you." she says back to him. With the way he is acting, this is going to be more awkward than she had hoped for earlier this evening. Hopefully, since they were in a restaurant, he wouldn't make a scene when she broke up with him.

* * *

 **-Jace**

Jace pulls up to the restaurant with Amatis chatting animatedly in the seat next to him. Two of his men are already at the restaurant posing as two people having a dinner meeting. His father insisted that he let his 'unknowns', as he calls them, go there and watch out for him. He doesn't even know what they look like.

"Here we are." he says with a charming smile on his face as he looks to her.

"I am so glad that we are spending some time together, Jace." she says back to him. "I feel like I have been an awful aunt to you."

"Don't be ridiculous." Jace says with a smile. "We are both adults now and I understand that life gets in the way sometimes. That doesn't mean that I have forgotten about you though." He steps out of the car and helps her out as well. The host takes them to a more secluded part of the restaurant and as they approach their table, he notices the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. She has the most beautiful red hair and startling green eyes. The purple dress she is wearing brings out those two colors and highlights them perfectly against her porcelain skin. Just then she smiles and gives a little laugh to the man she is with and Jace swears his heart skips a beat.

She feels his eyes on her then and looks up just as her laughter dies down and their eyes connect. He feels his face turning up and into a smile before he knows it and she drops her gaze as she blushes a little from the way he was looking at her. He had never seen anyone that had him feel so enraptured by just the way she looked and smiled. As they got closer to her table, he never took his eyes off of her and just as they were passing it, she looked up at him again as her date was talking to her. She gave Jace a small smile as he passed and blushed a little more as her date remained completely oblivious to their silent exchange.

The host took them to a table all of the way in the back, four tables down from the woman and her date. He made sure to sit where he could see her and his eyes widened once he saw the back of her. Her dress had no back and her perfect creamy skin stretched beautifully over the slight muscles in her back. It went all of the way to just above her butt and he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

Amatis saw his distant expression and turned to follow his eyes to the back of the red head. "Do you see something you like?" she asks him with a smirk.

He seems to snap out of his trance and shakes his head slightly as he looks back at the older woman across from him. "I'm sorry, Amatis. I'm being rude." he tells her.

"That's okay, Jace." she says with a smile at him. "She is very beautiful. Although...she does look somewhat familiar..." she trails off as she looks back over her shoulder for a moment at her and then back Jace.

"Do you know her?" he asks trying not to sound too hopeful.

"No...I don't think I do." she says with one last glance at her. "She probably just looks like someone I used to know."

They then lapse into a comfortable and friendly conversation while his eyes keep darting to the woman. Her date eventually sees him staring and sends him a smirk as he leans across the table and places a kiss on her lips. But what Jace saw that he didn't, was the way the muscles in her back tensed as he leaned in. She leaned away from him a little as he came to her and quickly looked down after he kissed her. From his guess, she was less into him than he was into her.

"...about that last deal?" Amatis asked him and his eyes went back to her.

"I'm sorry, Amatis. What did you say?" Jace says in an apologetic tone.

"I was asking you what you thought about that last deal your father made with the judges on his payroll." she says as she picks up her glass of white wine and takes a small sip.

He narrows his eyes at her for a moment and wonders why she would be asking him about that at this particular moment. She never discussed her work with him although they both knew he knew all about it and what she has done and is doing. "I'm not sure I know what you are talking about." he replies cautiously.

"Don't tell me you don't know about the negotiation that happened between him and Judges Scarborough, Dean, and Samson?" she asked and then took another sip of her wine. When she brought the glass to her lips this time, he saw that her hand was shaking lightly. He pulled his face into a smooth mask then as the feeling of something being really wrong washes over him hard and fast. "I honestly have no idea what you are talking about Amatis." he reiterates again as he leans back in his chair as he studies her.

"Maybe your father hasn't had a chance to discuss it with you yet." she says as the waiter shows up and takes away their cleaned entree plates and places dessert on the table. "What about that guy, what's his name..." she says as she looks away like she is deep in thought, "You know. The grey haired guy who gets the money across the border from Canada. He was flagged by homeland security and he had to be replaced. What was his name again?"

Yep. Something is definitely up. Jace looks more closely at the pendant she has around her neck after the light catches something on it. There is a tiny circle of black in the center and he quickly averts his eyes knowing that it is a camera. She came in here and is trying to get him to admit his involvement in his father's business. She is trying to get him caught by the FBI. 'How could she?' Jace thinks angrily to himself. He always thought of her as family. Someone he could trust with his life and now here she sits, trying to bring him down. "Amatis, I assure you that I don't know a thing you are talking about. And anyway, you know that I always hate it when you talk about _your_ work when I just want to spend time with you." Jace says with an easy smile on his face. He is now the picture of ease as he takes a sip of his wine and picks up a fork to take a bite of his dessert. "Mmmm." he says when he brings the food to his mouth. "This chocolate croissant is amazing. You should try yours." he urges her.

She smiles a little sheepishly at him looking a little disappointed and slightly nervous and picks up her fork. "This is delicious." she says looking back to him with a smile.

* * *

 **-Clary**

Sebastian has been very affectionate tonight and it is making Clary pretty uncomfortable. She doesn't know where this sudden affection came from. All throughout dinner he kept smiling at her and trying to make her laugh as he talked about his day at work and about his car and about his penthouse he is buying and about the suit he is wearing and how much it cost. She honestly doesn't know how she put up with him for so long. Towards the end of dinner though, his tone suddenly changed and he started complimenting her like crazy. Telling her what an amazing artist she was and how loving she could be when she wanted to. He kept reaching across the table and taking her hand and kissing it. At one point, he even leaned across the table and kissed her which is very uncharacteristic of him. Half way through dessert, she has finally had enough and decides that the time has come where she needs to break it off with him.

"Sebastian," she says softly and gaining his attention as she takes a sip of her wine, "there is something that I need to talk to you about."

"That's funny because there is something that I also need to talk to you about." he says with a smile. "Why don't you let me go first?"

"Okay." Clary says as she looks seriously at him.

"Clary, since we started dating two years ago, I knew that there was something special about you." Sebastian starts off and she shifts in her chair feeling suddenly uncomfortable. "You are beautiful and smart and you come from a prominent family. You take good care of me and my family absolutely loves you. You fit in well with my work friends and my boss is always asking about when I will bring you back to see him again. You enchant everyone you ever meet and that is something that I am looking for in a life partner."

'Oh no.' Clary thinks to herself. 'This cannot be happening.'

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tiny velvet Tiffany's box and sets it on the table and starts to slide it over to her. Her hand quickly comes up and holds his still, preventing him from pushing it closer to her from the middle of the table. "Sebastian." she says hurriedly. "Don't." she tells him seriously and looks hard into his eyes.

Sebastian holds still while looking in her eyes as confusion flits across his handsome face. "Don't what?" he asks. "Don't propose to you?"

"Yes. Don't propose." she answers him with her hand still on top of his that is on top of the ring box. "I can't marry you."

"Why not?" he says with an edge to his voice as his brows pull together.

"Because..." Clary says tiredly and closes her eyes as she says this next part, "because I don't love you, Sebastian and I am pretty sure you don't love me. You love the _idea_ of me. A girl from a powerful family who can help you further your career...but you don't love me."

"That's _not_ true." he says sounding slightly hurt and offended. "I think I know who I am in love with." he says and then pulls his hand out from under hers and slides the ring box back to his side of the table.

"Sebastian..." Clary says worriedly, "I was going to break up with you tonight. I had no idea you were this serious about me."

"Of course I am serious about you." he says tightly through his teeth; trying to keep quiet. "I wouldn't have spent two years with you if I wasn't."

"You know that we weren't together the whole two years." she says back at him. "We were on and off because we both know that we aren't exactly right for each other."

"No. I did _not_ know that." Sebastian says with a tight voice. She can see that his composure is starting to slip. His breathing has picked up and his face is turning red with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, Sebastian." Clary says sounding incredibly apologetic. "We would never work together in the long run. If you can't see that now, you will eventually."

She stands up from the table and grabs her clutch. She steps over to Sebastian's dazed face and bends down and gives him a kiss on the cheek before standing back up and walking towards the door.

* * *

 **-Jace**

Dessert has been fairly quiet since Amatis tried to get him to talk about the business. The longer Jace thought about it, the more he understood what had to be done. While he has been here, some of his father's men have snuck into Amatis' home and are setting up to make a 'clean kill' with plastic and such. They will probably make it look like she ran away by packing her bags and draining her bank accounts to untraceable ones in the Caymans.

Something catches Jace's eye from the table where the beautiful red head is sitting. The guy she is with pulls something out of his pocket and sets it on the table. Jace narrows his eyes at it, trying to see what it is. After a split second, he can see that it is a ring box from Tiffany's. He is going to propose to her.

Her head turns down to his hand sliding across the table and every muscle in her body tenses. Her hand snaps up and lands on his, effectively stopping him from pushing the box any closer to her. All he can see is the guys face and after a minute, he can tell that whatever she is saying to him, is definitely not what he wanted to hear. His face turns red with embarrassment then turns half angry and half hurt as he says something through his clenched teeth at her.

"You still watching that girl?" Amatis says with a smile.

He tears his eyes away from the scene unfolding in front of him and turn them back to his 'aunt' across from him. "You know me," he says with a smirk, "I love the ladies." and they both share a small laugh. "Listen, Amatis," he says as he watches the red head stand up from her table, "is it okay if I call you a car? I just remembered that I have to go do something."

"What could you possibly need to do this late at night?" she says sounding amused as she turns to see the girl walking away from her date after giving him a kiss on his cheek. "Oh...I see." she says with a small laugh as she looks back at him. "Go ahead." she says tiredly. "Go woo the girl."

"You're the best, Amatis." Jace says as he pulls out a few hundreds from his wallet and throws them on the table. He stands up from the table and looks down at the woman who he considered family and his heart gives a little lurch as he knows that this is the last time he will ever see her. "I love you, Amatis. Did you know that?" he tells her seriously as he looks into her blue eyes.

"I love you too, Jace." she says back at him sounding a little taken back and then takes another sip of her wine with shaky fingers. It's probably because she feels guilty as hell right about now. He bends down and gives her a long kiss on her forehead and with one last look, he walks away from her. He quickly pulls out his phone and shoots a text to the men waiting for her. _"She will be on her way in just a minute. The necklace she is wearing has a camera in it so take it before you do anything else. And...just make it quick._ " he adds on at the end. That is the most he can do for her in the situation she has put herself in.

As he passes by the desk up front by the door, he tells the host to call a car service for his friend and the host quickly picks up the phone and begins to dial. Jace then looks up and out of the window and sees the red head talking to one of the valets. Probably telling him to hail her a cab since she probably doesn't have a ride anymore now that her date didn't go so well.

Jace pushes through the door and straightens his suit out and runs a hand through his golden hair before casually strolling over to her and coming to a stop right next to her after giving a valet his ticket for his car. She seems to sense his presence and looks up at him. Although she looks pretty stressed out, her eyes widen fractionally at him before she offers him a friendly smile.

"I couldn't help but notice that your date didn't go so well." Jace says casually and she turns her face back up to him. He is momentarily lost in the bright green of her eyes and before she can say anything, he continues. "At least it didn't go well for your date."

"Do you always make it a habit to watch other people eating dinner and study their body language?" she says in a snarky tone and he smirks at her. She's fiesty. "Only when it is someone as beautiful as you." Jace replies and blood rushes to her face. She drops her eyes from Jace's and brushes her hair to the side as she looks back out in front of her.

"Does that line usually work?" she says back and he can hear amusement in her tone. "Because in my opinion, that was really weak."

"Nine times out of ten it works." Jace says as he moves to stand in front of her, forcing her to look at him. "You look like you need a drink."

She huffs out an amused breath as one side of her mouth turns up in a smirk. "First you tell me I'm beautiful and then you tell me I look like I need a drink. Which one is it?"

Jace narrows his eyes at her thoughtfully and a slow smirk pulls his mouth up into a crescent shape. "You won't let me get away with anything, will you?"

"I guess you will never know now that my cab is here." she says and steps around him. Before he knows what he is doing, he reaches out and lightly touches her wrist and she turns quickly back to him. "Have a drink with me. Just one." Jace says pleadingly. "If you still find me as annoying as your face tells me you think I am, then we can call it a night."

She looks into his eyes with her stunningly green ones and he soon finds himself getting lost in them again. He has never wanted any woman to say yes to him more than he wants her to say yes to him. She seems to study him for a minute and then, without warning, says, "Alright. I'll give you one drink." and he grins widely; feeling like he just won the lottery.


	3. Chapter 3

**Btw, there will be profanity in this story. What can I say? My fingers have the mouth of a sailor.**

* * *

"Alright. I'll give you one drink." she says to him. The smile that spreads across his face when she says that makes him even more handsome than he was just a moment ago. When she first made eye contact with him in the restaurant, it felt like her heart skipped a tiny little beat at how beautiful he was. She instantly wanted to grab a pencil and sketch him. He was the perfect male specimen and the artist in her couldn't help but stare at his nearly perfect face. When he smiled, she noticed that he had a tiny chip on one of his incisors. That made his beauty more bearable next to her because she never thought of herself as someone who would garner the attention of someone as gorgeous as him.

He holds his hand out for her as a valet hops out of an Aston Martin and hurries over to the beautiful man and drops the key into his hand. She looks to her left and then to her right and there is no sight of her father's guard. 'He probably thinks I went to the bathroom at the front of the restaurant' she thinks to herself. She had seen him sitting across the dinning area earlier occasionally looking over at her and Sebastian as he ate.

Clary looks down at his hand and places hers in his. The moment their skin comes in contact, she is surprised to feel that there is this jolt of electricity that runs up the length of her arm. He starts to pull her to his car and then she is getting in the passenger seat. The coldness of the leather seat on her back shocks her and as he shuts the door, she suddenly wonders what the hell she is doing. Her father would _kill_ her if he knew she was getting into the car of someone she didn't know without protection but that is what she liked about it. It had been _years_ since she was out in public without someone watching her every move.

The drivers side door opens and then he is sliding in. He pushes the start button and then turns to smile at her. "My name is Jace, by the way."

"That's nice." she says with a coy smile back at him. There was absolutely no way she was telling him her last name.

"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" He asks.

"It's Clary. " Clary says back to him and she grins at him. She can't help herself. His smile is just so contagious.

"Nice to meet you Clary." Jace says as he reaches across his shoulder and pulls his seat belt down. "So, where are we going?" Clary asks when she gets her seat belt buckled.

"To a place a few blocks away." he replies as he pulls out and onto the road. "It's owned by one of my friends." Clary sees movement at the door of the restaurant and looks back to see her father's guard looking worriedly up and down the sidewalk. He then goes up and says something to one of the valets and then she can't see him anymore. She pulls her phone out of her clutch and scrolls down to the contact that says 'dad's bulldog guard' (because he looks like a bulldog) and sends a quick text to him that says, _"I just need an hour or two by myself. I will be fine. I wouldn't recommend you tell my father that you lost me either. I am sure know about his temper."_ She hoped that he understood the threat implied that came with the text and that he wouldn't be stupid enough to tell her dad. They never stayed around long anyway and that's why she never bothered to learn their names. They would either disappear or 'get promoted' to do something like running products or such.

She looks back up to Jace to see he is looking down at her phone a little annoyed. "Sorry." she says as she tucks her phone back in her clutch. "I had to tell someone where I was in case you turn out to be a serial killer."

He lets out a musical laugh as he looks back to the road. "Nope. Not yet." he says with a smile. "I've only killed two people and you have to kill three to be considered a serial killer." He looks at her with a playful smile and huffs out a small laugh and a smile. "Although, I am still pretty young so that may change after a while."

"Well, good." she says back to him. "Just as long as it is no more than two, I'm safe." He turns his head and looks at her with the most heart breakingly sexy smirk and locks eyes with him. He seems equally trapped by her gaze and starts to lean closer to her, as if he is being pulled by some invisible force...and then the car behind them honks. The light they were stopped at turned green and he tears his eyes away from her and hits the accelerator.

"Was that your mom that was with you?" Clary asks him out of the blue.

"So you noticed me too." he says back to her while one side of his mouth pulls upward.

"Maybe." she says nonchalantly.

"That was a family friend." he answers as he shifts gears. "Was that your boyfriend?"

"Well...it was." she replies. "Since you were watching us, I am sure that you saw what happened and have come to the conclusion that he is now my ex-boyfriend."

"And just in the nick of time, too." Jace says as he makes a right turn. "I was probably going to feel bad for hitting on an engaged woman."

"So you planned to hit on me no matter what?" she says disbelievingly as she turns to look at him.

"Like I said," Jace continues as he pulls up to the curb in front of a low-key bar, "you are incredibly beautiful and there was no way I wan't going to try and pick you up. I would be kicking myself for the rest of my life if I hadn't."

He puts the car into park and looks over to gauge her reaction. Clary can feel a slight blush creeping up her cheeks and can't help the smile that is reluctantly spreading across her face. "You are pretty smooth, Jace...?" she says trying to learn his last name.

"Nope. No last names." he says with a smile. "After all, you might be the serial killer." She lets out a huge laugh and his eyes light up at the sound and sight of it. He opens his door then and hops out of the car. By the time he is opening her door, her laughing finally quiets. He sticks his hand out to help her out and she reaches out and takes it and is surprised to feel that spark again. She was sure it was a one time thing.

Clary slowly stretches out her leg, letting the split up her dress fall all of the way open to reveal her whole leg, and sets it on the ground. She looks up then to see Jace's eyes are narrowed a fraction in appreciation and smirks to herself with satisfaction that she was able to get that reaction out of him. He helps her the rest of the way out and shuts and locks his car doors and then is escorting her towards the door.

When they enter the bar, it is a little nicer than she thought it would be. It's definitely not fancy but it isn't a dump either. It's like a perfect medium between the two. There is a long bar down the length of the right side of the bar with grey booths lining the other side with tables separating the bar from them.

"Jace!" a large hispanic man call out from behind the bar. "I didn't expect to see you tonight."

"Well I didn't expect to come here, Bat." Jace says back to him with a warm smile as he walks over to the bar. They reach across it and share a bro handshake and then Jace turns back to her. "Is sitting at the bar okay?" he asks.

"That's fine." she says as he leads her down to the end near the back of the bar. She takes a seat and he sits next to her as most of the people there turn to look at them. They are definitely overdressed for the atmosphere but Clary could care less.

"The usual?" the bartender Bat asks as he looks at Jace. "Yes." He then looks to Clary questioningly. "I'll have a whiskey sour." Jace raises his eyebrows with surprise at her. "What?" she says looking back at him.

"Nothing." he says with a tiny grin. "I was just expecting you to order some fruity drink like most women."

"Well, I am far from anything like most women." she replies and thinks about who her family is and what she does. She is _definitely_ not like most women.

"I think I am starting to see that." Jace says as he looks at her with a quizzical look on his face.

"What do you do for a living, Jace?" Clary asks him as Bat sets her drink down in front of her.

"I own a few places around town with my father." he replies easily. "And what do you do?"

"I'm an artist. Or at least I am trying to be." she says and then takes a sip of her drink.

"Are you any good?" he asks her bluntly and she smiles widely at him. "You don't beat around the bush, do you?" Clary asks him rhetorically with smirk. "Most people just say 'Oh. That's nice' and just assume that my work is shit. But you just came right out and asked me." She studies him for a few seconds longer and then her smirk turns into full smile. "I like that about you."

"Yes, but you never answered the question." he tells her as he narrows his eyes.

"Well, I could say that I was good but you would have no way of knowing if I was telling the truth." she says with a shrug of her shoulders. "Then I will have to just take your word for it." Jace says back to her and tosses back another swig of his drink. "Or...you could draw me."

"What?" Clary asks him thinking she didn't hear him correctly.

"Draw me." he says challengingly and raises one eyebrow.

"I don't have anything to draw with." Clary says in defense. Just then, the bartender, Bat, sets a stenographer's pad in front of her along with a pencil and smiles mischievously at her before he walks away. "You just brought me here so you could have a wing-man, didn't you?"

"Maybe." he says as a smirk tugs on his lips. "Are you going to prove yourself or are you going to chicken out?" he says and then raises one eyebrow again.

Without breaking eye contact with him, she reaches over to the bar and picks up the pad of paper and the pencil and props it up with her other hand. Clary Morgenstern has never been one to back down from a challenge.

Jace smiles triumphantly at her as she begins to draw the lines of his face. His nose is perfectly sloped and his almond shaped eyes are framed by his long black lashes that any girl would kill for. His jaw looks like it was molded after the statue of David and his lips are the perfect fullness. Ten minutes pass before she feels like she has done enough to prove herself to him.

"It's a rough draft but someone put me on the spot." she says as she turns the paper around. His eyes widen as he looks to the drawing and his mouth falls open slightly. "You _are_ good." he says sounding very surprised. She sits up a little straighter with triumph as she proves to him that she isn't horrible like he clearly thought she would be.

After that, they lapse into conversation that has Clary laughing easily and she even makes him laugh as well. She doesn't think she has stopped smiling for the past hour because her cheeks are starting to ache with the effort of her smiles. She doesn't even notice that more people have started to fill the bar as the night gets later. Bat turns on some music that seems like a random collection of hit songs from the past two or three decades. Just as she stops laughing from something he said, she hears a classic eighties love song with a cheesy saxophone intro to the song and she lets out an amused smile.

"Ugh." she sighs. "Why did music producers in the eighties think that every slow song was in desperate need of a cheesy sounding saxophone?" she says as she looks at Jace. His face pulls together with a slightly horror filled look in his eyes and his hand goes over his heart. ( _if ya'll aren't familiar with this song, look it up. It's 80s-tastic_ ) "Are you knocking Careless Whisper by George Michael?!"

"Oh my God. You know this song?" she says with surprise.

"Know it?!" he says shocked and slightly offended and then he is suddenly standing up. He runs a hand through his hair and straightens out his tie and then looks down at the floor.

"What are you doing?" she asks with nothing but shock in her voice. He is just standing there...in the middle of the floor...looking down at his shoes. Just as she is about to ask him again, the singing starts in the song and Jace's head snaps back up to her as he starts to snap his knee to the beat of the music gently. When she looks back to his face, she sees that he is lip syncing the words of the song while looking into her eyes.

The music suddenly gets louder and she looks back to see that Bat has turned the volume up. When she looks back to Jace, he is making bedroom eyes at her as he slowly and dramatically raises his hand to point at her.

 _(Cheesy saxophone intro)_

 _Oh oh oh oh oh_

 _I feel so unsure_

 _As I take your hand and_

 _Lead you to the dance floor_

"Oh my God." Clary says as she can't help but smile and feel horribly embarrassed at the same time. She brings her hand up and shields her face from the rest of the bar patrons and just keeps her eyes on Jace. He looks like he is a singer singing theatrically on stage; making grand gestures with his hands and looking seductively at her.

 _As the music dies_

 _Something in your eyes_

 _Calls to mind a silver screen_

 _And all it's sad goodbyes_

"What does that even mean?" Clary says as he steps closer to her. He raises his hand up and the back of his fingers trail lightly down her cheek slowly and dramatically just as the chorus hits.

 _I'm never gonna dance again_

 _Guilty feet have got no rhythm_

 _Though it's easy to pretend_

 _I know you're not a fool_

He then winks very slowly at her and she tosses her head back with laughter at the sight. "You are about as cheesy as this song." she remarks as he continues to lip sync and steps back with a dramatic slide of his feet.

 _I should have known better than to cheat a friend_

 _And waste the chance that I'd been given_

 _So I'm never gonna dance again_

 _The way I danced with you...oooo...oooo_

"I am so embarrassed right now." Clary says lowly and Jace does a quick spin and steps back to her smoothly.

"No you're not." he says with a smirk while horribly shuffling his feet from side to side in a dance. "You find me charming and funny." and then he steps back and grabs her hand and pulls her up with him. She is too surprised to protest as he pulls her close to him. His left hand slides around and touches her bare back sending pleasurable waves of adrenaline through her. He pulls her close to him and holds out her other hand with his right in a classic slow dance stance. "What are you doing Jace?" she says lowly to him as her eyes dart to the other people who are watching them.

"I am trying to woo you." he says in a matter of fact tone. "Why? Is it working?" and then he spins them gracefully as the cheesy saxophone starts up again in the song and she can't stop herself from laughing and smiling hugely at him.

"Only a little." she says as he stops spinning them and looks up to his eyes. They are the most unusual gold color that is so incredibly beautiful and they are shining down at her. The way he is looking at her like she is the most beautiful and precious thing in this whole world makes her pulse quicken. He is swaying them along with the music and she soon forgets that anyone else is there. It is suddenly just the two of them in the whole bar and the best worst song of the eighties that they are dancing to.

Her bottom lips tucks slightly under her top teeth and she bites down gently on it as her eyes dart down to his lips which are glistening lightly from him quickly running his tongue across them. He starts to lean in very slowly..."Kiss her already!" a deep voice shouts loudly from somewhere else in the bar and it brings her out of the trance she was in. She drops her eyes to his chest as her cheeks flame with embarrassment. Jace sighs sounding annoyed and looks over her head to the guy who shouted it in the corner of the bar and says, "Thanks for ruining my game." and then nods his head towards the door.

Some huge guy walks up to him as Clary turns to get a look at the guy and watches as he gets thrown out of the bar. 'Must be nice to know the owner' she quickly thinks. She walks back over to her seat at the bar and pulls her phone out of her clutch and sees that she has 12 missed calls; 10 from Sebastian and 2 from 'Bulldog' and 7 texts. Jace steps back over to her then and she cranes her neck up at him. "I should probably go." she says apologetically.

"No. Not yet." Jace says as he grabs one of her hands. "Just a little longer." His eyes are pleading with her to stay and she suddenly can't find the will power to say no to him. He's just so beautiful. "Alright." she tells him and he gives her a blinding smile and sits down in the seat next to her again.

Clary and Jace figure out they are both really competitive and start to have a series of small games to compete with each other. They have a thumb war and then she decimates him in rock, paper, scissors. Jace challenges her that he can tie a knot in a cherry stem faster than her and she grins mischievously at him thinking that no one can beat her. Three seconds later she is staring in utter shock as he pulls out a perfectly tied cherry stem out of his mouth and she has barely folded hers in half.

Clary hears her phone vibrate for the millionth time and picks it up to look at it. It's her dad's guard and he is starting to get pissed. She sighs heavily and looks back up to Jace. "I really should get going. My friend is starting to panic." and she waves her phone at him to show the twenty missed calls and texts and voice mails. His brows pick up a little in surprise when he sees that and then he is looking at her again. He is surprised at himself that he actually wants to ask for her number and not just try to have sex with her. That has only happened one other time in his life.

"Can I have your number?" he asks as she puts her phone in her clutch.

She looks up to his hopeful face and smiles easily at him. "Yeah. You can." she replies and a radiant smile pulls up both corners of his mouth as he pulls out his phone. She gives him her number and he sends her a quick text. She enters him into her contacts under 'Jace' as they start to walk out of the bar.

"So, where am I taking you?" Jace asks as he opens the car door for her. She briefly thinks about letting him drive her home but that wouldn't be a good idea for a multitude of reasons. "My friend is just around the block near the restaurant. You can just take me there. I don't want to make you drive all of the way to Brooklyn."

"You live in Brooklyn?" Jace asks.

"I do." she answers, "and my friend is already going that way."

"Alright." he answers and turns the car on. She sends a quick text to 'Bulldog' to meet her there and receives an instant answer of agreement. He is probably terrified of her dad finding out that he isn't with her.

They lapse into a very comfortable silence on the short drive back as they atmosphere in the car between them thickens. Jace looks over to her and can't believe what has happened with himself tonight. He has been acting like a love sick teenager for most of the time and now he just wants to keep driving and take her home just so he can talk to her and sit next to her for longer. She probably wouldn't like that though since she wants her friend to take her home. His heart drops a little when he can see the restaurant up ahead and he looks over to her when he pulls up on the opposite side of the street. She turns her mesmerizing green eyes to him and offers him a smile as she unbuckles her seat belt.

"You surprised me Jace." she says as she turns to face him a little. "In a good way."

"You surprised me as well." he replies back. "And I don't surprise easily."

"Neither do I." Clary says as her eyes dart back down to his lips. She quickly tears them away and then looks to his eyes. "Don't wait too long to call me." she says as she opens the door. The look of shock on his face when she starts to get out of his car is priceless because he had already started to lean in. He clearly thought he was going to get to kiss her. She stands up out of the car and then bends over to look at him one last time. "Trust me." Jace says earnestly. "I won't be able to wait." and she smiles as she stands up and shuts the door.

Five seconds after Jace drives away, a dark black SUV rolls up and screeches to a halt in front of her. She sees an angry looking Bulldog through the windshield and rolls her eyes as she opens the passenger door. "See. No harm, no foul." she says as she takes a seat and pulls her seat belt down. When she looks back over to him, she can see that he is trying to contain his anger with her as he searches for something to say to her that won't get him killed. "You cannot do that Miss. Morgenstern." he tells her tightly.

"No, I think I can." she says as she narrows her eyes at him. "I certainly don't need you telling what I can and cannot do. Do I?" She drops her gaze and glares at him for a moment and then she sees it. The fear that she can instill with just one glance. Whether it be because of who her father is or if it is because she can level a very icy gaze at someone, she can make grown men feel as small as a child. "No ma'am." he says and then his face turns tight looking like a angry scolded child and puts the car in drive and takes off.

By the time Clary gets home, it is one in the morning. She opens the front door to the house slowly to keep quiet and slips into the dark foyer. She shuts the door behind her quietly and then leans against it with her hands behind her as a smile forces it's way onto her face. Clary hasn't been able to stop thinking about Jace the whole way home. She hasn't genuinely laughed so much in such a long time that her cheeks are actually starting to ache. One of her hands goes to her face and she touches her cheek where he touched her and she can almost still feel the electricity that he spread from that point if she thinks hard enough about it.

Just then, a bright light is switched on and she blinks rapidly trying to get her eyes to adjust. Before she can see her, she hears her mom squeal excitedly and then she says "Let me see it!" and then is pulling Clary's left hand from behind her back.

"What are you talking about mom?" she asks just as her father comes into view in his house robe. "Where is it?" her mother asks her.

"Where's what?" Clary asks and then it hits her. She had completely forgotten about Sebastian. She pushes off the door and stands up straight and looks her mother in the eyes. "You knew he was going to propose?" she asks her with her tone a little too tight.

"Of course I did." Jocelyn says back to her. "He asked you father earlier this week for permission to marry you. Why do you look so upset?"

Clary pushes past her mother and begins to head for the stairs in the back of the house. "Because you could have told him not to ask me. I was planning on breaking up with him tonight and then the next thing I know, he pulls out a ring box and starts to propose." She gives her father a stern look as she passes by him and she can hear her mother's light footfalls following her.

"Why would you want to break up with him?" Jocelyn calls out worriedly. "Aren't you in love with him?"

Clary stops dead in her tracks and turns to face her mom. She can see her father's confused face behind her as he slowly walks closer to the two of them. "No. I'm not in love with him." she replies sounding a little defeated. "I mean, I care for him and I love him but...I'm just not _in love_ with him. I never have been."

Jocelyn looks like she has just been hit by a train. "Then why would you stay with him for two years if you didn't love him?"

"It was on and off and...because," she says as she turns back around and walks towards the kitchen instead of the stairs. She pulls out a bottle of water from the fridge as her parents move to the other side of the island that she is standing at now. "I thought...I don't know. Maybe I thought it would eventually change or that he wasn't serious about me either. I mean, I really don't think he loves me to be honest. I think he loves the _idea_ of me. Someone from a powerful family that can help him further his financial gains and power."

"But Clary," her mother says as he looks at her, "he's so sweet and successful and comes from a good family and he adores you."

"God!" Clary says exasperatedly. "You are starting to sound like him. Did you even hear me? I am _not_ in love with him so therefore I do not want to marry him. I don't care if he is successful and comes from a 'good family'." she says imitating her mother's voice.

"Well, it would have been nice for you to tell him that." Valentine says sternly, speaking for the first time.

"That is what I was going to do tonight." she says pleadingly back at him. "I had a whole speech planned out and everything. I know that you like him, Daddy, but don't you want me to marry someone that I am in love with? Not just marry the first guy that I have a relationship with just because I invested a significant amount of time into it?" He folds his arms across his chest and Clary walks over to stand in front of him. "I want what you and mom have. I want a guy to sweep me off of my feet like you did with her. I don't want to look back twenty years from now and feel like a I made a mistake just because I didn't want to rock the boat with your business because things will be a little awkward for a while between me and him. Please tell me you understand."

Valentine takes a deep breath through his nose for a moment and then gives her a small nod. "Thank you daddy." she says as she leans forward and gives him a kiss on the cheek and leaves towards the stairs.

* * *

 **-Jace**

What the hell is wrong with him? He can't stop thinking about her. There wasn't one thing that he could pick out that he didn't like. She had the biggest and most beautiful green eyes that he was constantly getting lost in. When she smiled, her whole face grew impossibly more attractive and he swears he became addicted to her laugh about thirty minutes into their 'date'.

The elevator doors open up on his floor where he is the only apartment and he walks over to his penthouse door. He opens his door and takes his jacket off and folds it and sets it gently over the back of a chair as he makes his was to his kitchen for a bottle of water. Just as he pulls one out of the fridge he hears his phone ping and he pulls it out of his pocket. He opens up the text from an unknown number and all it says is, _"It's done."_ He knows instantly that it is from the men who were going to 'take care' of Amatis and his mood suddenly dulls.

He puts the bottle back in the fridge and then opens one of his cabinets and pulls down a bottle of scotch and pours himself a large glass of it. He tosses that back in a matter of minutes and then pours himself another glass as he pulls his phone back out. He scrolls down to Clary's name and sends her a quick text saying, _"Have lunch with me tomorrow."_

While he waits for an answer, he takes his coat and walks to his bedroom where he finishes undressing. He is surprised when he feels a rush of adrenaline when he hears his phone ping again and he hurriedly snatches it up to look at the text. _"Tomorrow. 96th street garden. I'll bring my friends and it can be a double date. I already had plans to have lunch with them. And anyway, I can't be too careful. You could still be a serial killer."_ He lets out a little laugh although he feels a little disappointed about her bringing other people along. But as long as he gets to see her again, he really doesn't care if the whole Yankee's baseball team came along with them.

 _"Okay."_ he text back. _"12:30 tomorrow. I can't wait."_ and he hits send. Just as he sees the text go through, he groans. He should be smoother than that. He shouldn't have told her that he can't wait. He doesn't want to sound desperate. "Fuck." he mutters as he runs a hand through his hair. Just when he is about to text her back, trying to cover for his momentary lapse of judgement, his phone pings again. _"I can't wait either."_ she replied and he suddenly feels a goofy and excited grin on his face.

* * *

 _Don't forget to follow and review to tell me what you think and what you would like to see!_


	4. Chapter 4

Clary wakes up with a start when someone knocks on her door. She rubs her eyes and rolls over away from her door and pulls the covers over her head. "Whoever it is, go away!" she shouts through her thick comforter.

"Miss. Morgenstern, it's me." says the house maid, Sarah. "Your mother sent me up here with a breakfast tray for you. I'll just set it on your desk." Clary hears the door open but doesn't come out from under her covers. When she hears the door shut, she tosses them off of her and looks over to her phone where it lays on her nightstand. She can see the little light blinking on the screen that tells her that she has messages and she groans knowing that she probably won't want to see most of them after last night.

The dinner with Sebastian was brutal. Seeing his face so shocked and embarrassed and angry and sad all at the same time was something that she hadn't prepared herself for. She just thought that he might be a little angry when she broke it off but that was before he tried to propose.

Clary pushes herself up and into a sitting position and grabs her phone and unplugs it from the charger. When the screen lights up, there are twenty four missed calls and twenty eight texts and four voice mails. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath and blows it out of her mouth as she opens the first text from Sebastian. _"Can we just talk about this for a minute? Come back inside."_ says the first text from him. This one was probably right after she left.

She scrolls down a few and touches one. _"Please don't do this. We are perfect together. Just talk to me. Answer the phone."_ She closes that one out and scrolls down to another one. _"You're are being ridiculous, Clary. I know you didn't mean what you said. It was the shock of me asking you. I know you will call me in just a few minutes."_

'Yikes.' she thinks to herself as she scrolls down a bit further. _"You are such a bitch! How could you lead me on for all that time and then..."_ She closes that one out, not wanting to read anymore. Clary dials her voice mail and the first message is from a panicked sounding Sebastian. _"Clary. I love you. Come back to the restaurant. Let's talk this out. Your father would want us to work this out."_

"Ugh." she says as she hangs up. Her father has _nothing_ to do with their relationship. Why can't he see that she _hates_ it when he tries to pull her parents into their relationship. It is between the two of them and not the four of them.

Just as she is about to put her phone down, she sees two texts from a new number. She pulls it up and under the contact name it says Jace. Her face instantly pulls up into a wide smile as she hurriedly taps the screen to pull up the text. _"Eat a light breakfast. I'm bringing lunch for everyone."_ it reads. She smiles even more and then taps the next message from him. _"I am also bringing a body guard. I had a dream last night that you were the serial killer from silence of the lambs and made me rub lotion on my skin after you dumped me in a well. It was frightening yet also a little erotic..."_ She lets out a huge laugh and looks down to see that the text was only sent fifteen minutes ago.

"I'll bring the lotion." she texts and hits send. She can't help but stare at her phone, waiting for a response. Clary doesn't have to wait long to get one. Only a minute passes before her phone pings and she is hurriedly tapping it. _"It's definitely starting to lean more towards erotic."_ his text says and she laughs again. Within a matter of seconds, Sebastian and her problems have been completely forgotten.

She hops out of bed with a smile on her face and looks to see that she has a bowl of fruit and pancakes on her desk. She only eats two pancakes with fruit on them and then she is getting in the shower. When she gets out, she picks up her phone and hits her speed dial and her best friend Maia picks up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Maia! We are going to the park for lunch today." Clary says brightly as she wraps her hair in a towel after putting it on speaker phone. "And it is going to be a double date."

"But I thought that you were going to break up with Sebastian." Maia says with confusion. "Jordan said that you confirmed it yesterday right before his shift ended."

Clary is suddenly brought back down and into reality with those two small sentences. "Yeah, well..." Clary says unsurely as she picks up her phone from where it was sitting on the counter. "Sebastian kind of proposed."

"OH MY GOD, CLARY!" Maia shouts into the phone. "What did you say?"

"I said no and broke up with him." she replies somberly. "It was horrible. He's called like thirty times and left so many messages..." Clary takes a deep breath as she runs a hand over her face. "It's just going to be so awkward for a while. I don't think I will be going around Dad's office for a while. At least until things calm down. It also helps that I know his schedule so at least I can try my best to avoid him."

"Clary. That is crazy." Maia says seriously. "I had no idea that he was going to propose. He knows that you aren't, or weren't, as serious about him as he was about you. You have broken up with him like three times. Well, now four."

"Apparently he didn't know that or else he wouldn't have tried to ask me to marry him." Clary says as she finds her bra and slips it on. "Listen, I really don't want to talk about it right now. I was in a really good mood for a minute when I wasn't thinking about it."

"But you said that it was going to be a double date." Maia says curiously.

"Well, don't judge me but...I kinda met someone when I left the restaurant and was waiting for cab to take home." she says sheepishly.

"What the hell, Clary?" Maia says loudly into the phone. "Were you able to wipe Sebastian's blood off of your hands from his bleeding heart before you put them on someone else? Or did you not stop at the bathroom to wash your hands?"

"Jeez, Maia!" Clary says defensively. "Whose side are you on? You know I didn't love him and it has been over between me and him for a long time for me. You know that." The line goes quiet for a second. "And anyway," Clary says a little quietly, "you didn't see the way this guy looks. He is the most beautiful man I have ever seen. He took me for a drink and...I don't know." she says as she shakes her head lightly from side to side. "There is something about him. He made me completely forget about Sebastian and when he touches me, it's like there is this electricity that he emits and it's addicting. I felt like a giddy teenager when I saw that he texted me this morning."

She can hear Maia huff out a breath of air before she replies. "Alright." she says sounding resigned. "I guess I have to see what 'the most beautiful man you have ever seen' looks like." she says imitating her best friend.

"His name is Jace and trust me when I say that you won't be disappointed." Clary says with an excited smile. "We are meeting at the 96th street garden for lunch. I knew it was going to be in the upper sixties today and figured a picnic would be appropriate. I also know that Jordan wouldn't let me go alone and I can't exactly have a body guard hovering over me the whole time. He doesn't know who I am and I want to keep it that way. At least for as long as I can. I don't want to scare him away. I _really_ like him so far. Oh, and he says he is bringing the food also."

"Alright. What time?" Maia says.

"Twelve thirty. Jordan and I will pick you up since he is probably already here."

"Okay. See you then." she says and then hangs up. Clary walks over to the full length mirror in her closet and looks at her reflection. Her cheeks are flushed and she has the goofiest grin on her face. Apparently, that is what thinking about Jace does to her and she likes it.

* * *

 **-Jace**

"Are you done with that?" Stephen Herondale says as he takes a bite of his bacon and looks pointedly at his son's phone. "And why are you smiling like that?"

Jace tucks his phone away in his pocket after he sends Clary another text about his dream leaning more towards erotic and looks up to meet his father's annoyed gaze. "I met this girl last night. I was just solidifying our lunch date."

"You met a girl last night and are planning on seeing her again...during the day...after you have exchanged numbers with her?" his father asks disbelievingly. "Who are you and what have you done with my son?"

"Stop it, Stephen." Celine Herondale says as she smiles over at her son. "Look at him. He can't stop smiling." and she gestures towards Jace's slight smile. "What's her name?"

"It's Clary." Jace replies as he takes a bite of his breakfast. "I met her outside of the restaurant last night."

His father's face suddenly falls as the reminder of Amatis is brought back. Celine reaches over and places her hand on top of her husbands and looks worriedly at him. Even though Amatis was her husband's ex, they still got along great and she knew that a part of Stephen would always love her. This was hard on everyone and it was her job to keep everyone together.

"We had no choice." Celine says gently and Stephen's eyes look over to her and soften. He sits up a little straighter then and puts a wall up with his emotions as he shifts into 'boss' mode.

"Well, thanks for having me over for breakfast, Mom." Jace says as he stands up. "I've got a few errands to run before this afternoon." He looks over to his father then. "And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the FBI agent that she was talking to. I've got men watching him and when he leaves his apartment, we are going to torch it. Our guy in the D.C. office at the agency has already started to delete everything they had collected on us. I've got this handled."

His father gives him a nod and looks almost proud as he looks at his son. "Come to the yearly sit down with me this year." his father says, surprising him. "Valentine was wanting to bring his son who is the same age as you and I think that would be a good idea. When me and him are gone, it will be you and his son who will have to keep the peace."

"Alright." Jace says with a smile. He has been asking for years to go to the meetings and his father finally thinks he is ready. For Jace, that is huge. He puts a lot of value in his father's opinion and him saying he is ready is the biggest compliment he could ever give him. "Thanks Dad." he tells him and then shakes his hand fondly and kisses his mother on the top of her head and then leaves to go take care of few things before his date with Clary.

* * *

"Don't come too close or be too obvious." Jace says to Max as they pull up at the park. "Just do some laps like you are a runner. Don't hang around and stare. I will be fine. It's just a date. I don't think she is going to pull a gun on me."

"You never know, Jace." Max says to him. "There have been quite a few times where I have wanted to shoot you." Jace rolls his eyes as Max laughs a little. "Don't be so dramatic, Max." Jace says as he hands him a gun. Max reaches around to the back of his pants and clips it on his waistband and then hops out of the SUV and pulls his shirt down over it. Jace steps out a minute later after he tucks a small gun into a small compartment in the cloth sack that is holding a blanket and the sandwiches he picked up. He smooths down the blue casual looking button up shirt he is wearing and rolls the sleeves up to his elbows. He runs a hand through his hair one last time and then starts to look up and down the street for any sign of Clary's red hair.

* * *

"Jordan. Just...here." Clary walks around to Jordan's back and pulls out his shirt a little more in an effort to conceal the gun he has tucked back there. "Quit messing with it and it will be fine. I can't tell that you have one when you stop fiddling with it."

"I've tried to tell him that but he won't listen to me." Maia says as she steps out of the car to join the two of them.

"I hate it when the two of you team up on me." Jordan mutters while he grabs a blanket from the SUV and the two girls share a small laugh.

Clary and Maia have been best friends for ten years. Her brother came to work for Valentine and when he offered his little sister, who was only thirteen at the time, up to some of Valentine's men, they went and told Valentine and he wasn't too happy about that. Maia was the same age as Clary and he was disgusted by him that he would offer up his little sister like that instead of protecting her. He had apparently killed his parents the year before and practically tortured Maia for a year before he started working for the Morgensterns. Long story short, Maia's brother was a crazy psycho that Valentine had to kill after a few months. Maia lived with them for a year after that and then moved out when her aunt moved to New York and took responsibility for her. Since then, they have been practically inseparable which is how Jordan got his job.

"So tell me again what this guy looks like." Maia asks Clary as they start to walk the block down to the entrance of the park.

Clary takes off her sunglasses when a cloud passes in front of the sun and turns to face her friend again. "Are you sure I look okay?" Clary asks her for the millionth time. She is wearing dark skinny jeans and a maroon 3/4 length sleeve shirt that hangs below her butt loosely. It has few buttons up top that she has opened to reveal a decent amount of her chest without too much cleavage. Her brown boots come up to below her knee while her hair hangs straight down her back.

"You look great, now quite stressing." Maia tells her. "You are going to prematurely age that flawless twenty-three year old skin of yours."

"I know." Clary says as she returns to walking. "I just haven't been on an actual date with anyone else since the last time Sebastian and I broke up like seven months ago. And that was barely a date. It was more of a one night stand." Clary looks over to Maia then who is holding Jordan's hand as they walk. "And I really like this guy. There is just something about him. I don't know what it is but, I like it." She looks up ahead again and her heart takes off into a sprint. She can see Jace up ahead as he looks into the park while holding a sack full of what she is assuming is lunch. "That's him." she says as a smile makes her voice sound bright.

"Who?" Maia says as she looks up the sidewalk. When her eyes land on Jace, they widen in shock and appreciation. "You mean the male model up ahead with the golden locks of honey for hair and the golden skin that looks as soft and creamy as butter?" Maia looks him up and down and then Jordan says, "Hey! Your boyfriend is right here."

"You're beautiful too, Jordan." Clary says with a laugh.

Jace hears that beautiful laugh that he hasn't been able to stop thinking about and he snaps his head in the direction of the sound. His eyes meet hers and then there is an uncontrollable wide smile pulling up his lips. Clary looks absolutely beautiful. The maroon color of her shirt contrasts beautifully with her hair, making her look like a fucking angel with the way the sun is hitting the red of it from behind.

"Look at the way he is smiling at you." Maia says lowly to Clary as they close the distance between them. "He might already be in love with you."

"Hey Jace." Clary says with a giddy smile as they come within hearing distance of each other. He walks the last couple of feet between them and then he is frozen, unsure of how to greet her. "These are my friends Maia and Jordan." Clary says as Jordan sticks his hand out to shake Jace's. "Nice to meet both of you." he says back as he shakes their hands. "I'm Jace."

"Very nice to meet you, Jace." Maia says with a wink and Jordan elbows her in the side lightly. Clary laughs at the exchange and then is looking towards the park. "I know a great spot. There are a few boulders that Maia and I used to use as a table when we were teenagers. They are the perfect height for a table while sitting on the grass."

"Lead the way." Jace says with a warm smile that Clary returns.

"So," Jace says turning to Jordan. He wants to engage her friends and make them like him. He knows that it will be an uphill battle if her friends don't like him so that will be one of the first things he will do. "what do you do for a living?"

"I work in security." Jordan replies comfortably. "Mainly personal for whoever needs it."

"Really?" Jace asks. "You _are_ kind of an intimidating guy with all your tats and the size of you."

"I like to think I am." Jordan says and Maia rolls her eyes.

"Don't let that fool you." she says as she looks to Jace. "He is just a big softy on the inside."

"Like a big fluffy marshmallow." Clary says with a small laugh that her and Maia share.

Jace looks over to Clary and smiles brightly at her face that is lit up from her laugh. "You are still just as beautiful as you were last night." He says lowly to her next to him. But not low enough for Jordan and Maia not to hear.

Clary blushes brightly and smiles at him. "Thank you." she says back to him. "You on the other hand...I should probably have my friend call me with that 'emergency' that she will so desperately need me for." Jace lets out a loud laugh as she leads them off of the sidewalk and into a grassy area. Jace can see a few boulders up ahead and Clary lifts her hand and points to them. "That is our target."

When they reach the boulders, Jace pulls out the blanket and lays it down for him and Clary on one side while Jordan lays down his blanket on the other side for him and Maia. He then pulls out sandwiches from his favorite deli and passes them out. "I hope everyone likes Kentucky Hot Browns."

"What did you just say?" Jordan says as he picks up a wrapped sandwich.

"Its hot sliced turkey, bacon, and cheese with Mornay sauce and toasted thick sliced bread." Jace explains.

"You had me at bacon." Clary says as she pulls hers from the wrapper. "Me too." Jordan says. Jace looks over to him to see that he has already taken a bite and is now looking appreciatively at the sandwich in his hands. "I had one when I went to the Kentucky Derby a few years ago. When I got back here, I searched all over Manhattan for a deli to make one like how I had it there. These are one of the best sandwiches that I have ever had."

"Mmmm." Clary says as she chews a bite of hers. "This _is_ good." she says with a smile.

"I'm glad you like it." he tells her as they lock eyes. The way the sun is shining on her face from the side, it is lighting up the green in her eyes to the most brilliant color that he gets completely lost in. He doesn't know how long the two of them just sat there looking at each other before her friend Maia cleared her throat and said, "Clary says you are a business owner?"

He tears his eyes away from hers just as a slight blush begins to creep up her cheeks. "I own a few around town." he replies. "What do you do?"

"I have no idea." Maia says with a smile. "I am in school right now but I have changed majors so many times that I will probably never finish."

"Sure you will." Jordan says and gives her a soft smile and then a kiss on her forehead as she looks at him.

"Have the three of you known each other for a long time?" Jace asks as he gestures between the three of them.

"Well," Clary says and Jace gladly turns to look at her, "Maia and I have known each other for ten years. She briefly dated my other best friend, Simon, before seeing Jordan singing on stage in a run down bar near NYU."

"You're in a band?" Jace asks as he turns to Jordan.

"I used to be in a band. I sang and played guitar. We sucked pretty bad so it is probably a good thing that we broke up after we couldn't decide on a name." Jordan explains.

"They had the worst names." Clary says emphatically as her and Maia start to laugh.

"Remember when they called themselves 'Panda Lickers' for like a month?" Clary barely gets out through her laughter. Maia doubles over with laughter as Jordan glares at the two girls and takes another bite of his sandwich casually and says, "I am never going to be able to live that down, am I?"

"Nope." Maia says as she pulls herself upright again. "Not as long as me and Clary are around."

Just then, Jace sees Max jog by and he gives him a small nod to let him know that things are fine and he keeps going. They finish their lunch with easy conversation that doesn't give him too many opportunities to engage Clary in conversation and he is starting to get antsy about it. He wants to have her all to himself again like he did last night. He wants more than anything to try to kiss her again. Just as he is about to ask her to go for a walk, he feels her small hand on the skin of his forearm. "Do you want to go for a walk around the park?" she asks him and he smiles at her. "I was just about to ask you that." he tells her and she smiles widely at him.

"We are going to go for a walk." Clary says to Jordan who for some reason looks a little nervous as she stands up. She leads him back onto the sidewalk just as Max passes them again looking incredibly winded. He has been running for almost thirty or forty minutes straight and Jace is sure that Max is going to kill him when they get back in the car. Clary looks up to him and he reaches out and takes her left hand into his right and intertwines their fingers together. That feeling of adrenaline that he got last night whenever he touched her comes back strong and hard and her eyes light up like his surely are.

"I finally have you to myself." he says as they stroll past an elderly couple on a bench. "Did you bring the lotion?" he asks mischievously and she lets out a loud laugh before she responds. "I left it in the car."

"Oh well. There goes my plan for the next thirty minutes." Jace says nonchalantly and Clary lets out another round of laughter.

When she stops laughing, she looks up to Jace who is smiling down at her. "You have no idea how much I needed a laugh today. The fallout from my breakup is ridiculous because he works with my father. It just makes everything super awkward. But you seem to be making up for it."

"Well I'm glad I'm good for something." Jace replies with an easy smile. He starts to rub his thumb along the back of her hand and she blushes a little with the way he is looking at her. "Why do you look at me like that?" Clary asks curiously and with a soft voice.

"Like what?" Jace asks.

Clary looks away from him for a second and then back up to him. "Like...I don't know." and then she turns her head back down and to the front. Jace stops and pulls her to him with their hands. He lets go of it and brings that hand around her waist and pulls her body to his while his other hand goes up to cup her face. "Because I have been dying to kiss you since the moment I saw you and I don't know how much longer I can hold out." Jace says seriously and with a sexy look in his eyes.

Clary's heart picks up to an amazing pace as she sees the desire in his eyes and she is sure he can see it in her eyes as well. When she first saw him today, all she wanted to do was kiss him. "Then don't wait any longer." she says quietly back to him and looks down at his lips as he looks down at hers.

His hand slides up her back and stops between her shoulder blades and he presses her against him. Clary's hands slide up his chest as he leans in to her mouth. The moment his lips touch hers, the world starts to spin for both of them. Clary's heart beats uncomfortably hard in her chest as it feels like she has just fallen off of a cliff only to have Jace catch her at the last second before she hit the ground.

Jace pulls her closer to him as her hands slide up and one goes to the back of his neck. She then opens her mouth and his tongue slides in. The kiss is slow and passionate and Jace never wants it to end. Kissing her was way better than he thought it would be. The little tiny shocks of adrenaline he gets from just touching her exploded to his whole body the moment his lips touched hers.

She pulls back after a few more seconds and takes a ragged breath as he rests his forehead against hers. Jace closes his eyes as he tries to get his heart rate to slow down to a normal rhythm and takes a deep breath and breathes out "Wow." quietly.

Clary lets out a small huff of air as he opens his eyes and sees the small smile on her perfect lips. "Wow is right." she says as she pulls her head away and looks up at him. Her eyes are alight with wonder as she looks into his and he leans in to give her another kiss. He presses his lips gently against hers for a moment before he pulls back again. His hand that is cupping her face brushes a strand of hair out of her face that the wind had blown into her eyes. "You are so _incredibly_ beautiful." he blurts out softly. He seems to do that a lot with her. Usually, he thinks about what he is going to say before he says it but with Clary, it's like she has taken away his filter.

A smile pulls up the corners of her mouth again as she bites down sexily on her bottom lip and takes one small step backwards. The hand that was on his chest slides over to his arm and then down to his hand; her eyes never breaking with his. She weaves her fingers through his long ones and coaxes his dazed body to take a few steps. "I thought we were going for a walk." she says with an easy smile. The one that he returns to her is absolutely dazzling and she sucks in a tiny breath at how beautiful he is when his face lights up like that.

They walk slowly around the park in circles and talk about random things like what their favorite food is and where is their most favorite place they have ever been. Clary tells him about her art and what she loves about it and he seems to be completely fascinated with every word she says. He asks her questions about tiny things that she mentioned letting her know that he has been listening intently the whole time.

Jace tells her about how his mother inspired his love for the piano and the perfectionist side of him from his father drove him to be the best he could be at it. They swap stories about their childhood and how they would get into trouble and Clary tells him about the endless pranks her and her brother played on each other. Jace tells Clary how no matter how hard his parents tried, they could never get pregnant after him.

They stop every now and then and kiss slowly, getting lost in the other one as their hearts race from the adrenaline that they give each other. It's after their eleventh kiss when Clary pulls back does she notice that the sun is starting to dip behind the skyscrapers around the park. "Oh my gosh. It's getting dark." she says with surprise as she looks up to the dimming sky. "What time is it?"

Jace pulls out his phone and he gives a little laugh and smiles when he sees the time. "It's five-thirty." he tells her.

"Oh my God." Clary says as she starts to look around. "Where did Jordan and Maia go?"

"They probably left a long time ago." Jace says as he looks around as well. He vaguely remembers glancing at a very tired looking Max but it didn't register with him at the time that he was mouthing that he was going to go back to the SUV. "I didn't realize how late it has gotten."

"Me either." Clary says as she smiles back up at him. "We have been walking for like five hours and I didn't even realize it. But now that I think about it, my feet are starting to hurt." She lets out a small laugh as Jace steps closer to her with a crooked grin. His hand comes up and slides around to the back of her neck and he presses his lips against hers as she leans into him; her body molding perfectly to his.

"Have dinner with me." Jace says lowly and earnestly as he pulls back and his lips just barely brush hers. She can hear just how badly he wants her to say yes.

"Okay." she says with a small smile. "You could ask me to go on a murdering spree with you like that and I would probably agree."

He lifts his head away but doesn't drop his hand from her neck. "No fancy restaurants. Just a regular dinner date."

"I like that idea." Clary says softly. "Do I get to go home and change?"

"Only because I need to also." he says with half a smile. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to let go of you." His eyes are swimming with emotion when he says that and Clary feels her heart jump into her throat. "I guess that means that we should start making our way back." she says after a few seconds.

"Unfortunately it does." he says sounding slightly defeated. "Come on. It's starting to get cold." He throws his arm around her and pulls her tightly into his side as they walk in comfortable silence. Clary pulls out her phone to see that Jordan texted her that him and Maia had gone back to the SUV. "Jordan and Maia are waiting at the car." she tells Jace as she tucks her phone back into her pocket.

When they get back out to the sidewalk, Jace walks her the block down to her car and pulls her into him. They kiss for a while until both of them are a little breathless and Jace reluctantly steps away from her. She watches him walk away for a little bit while he keeps turning around so they can exchange goofy smiles with each other. When she loses him in the crowd, she turns around and walks a little dazed over to where she can see Jordan in the drivers seat with the back of it laying down while Maia runs her fingers through his hair from the back seat.

She reaches out and opens the door and gets into the car and shuts the door behind her while she can't wipe the smile off of her face. "Holy shit, Clary." Maia says lowly. "You've got it _bad_ for him."

"I'm not even going to try to deny it." she replies as she turns and looks at Maia. "Maia, I think he might be the one." Clary says seriously.

"But you have only known him for like...twenty-four hours."

"I don't care." she tells her with a shake of her head. "I just spent five hours walking and talking with him and I didn't even realize it. It only felt like thirty minutes had passed and I still don't feel like it was enough time."

Jordan cranks up the car as he sets his seat up and buckles his seat belt. "I do have to admit that the way he looks at you...it's like the way Jordan looks at me only ten times more intense." Maia admits to her. "No offense, babe." she calls up front and Jordan responds with, "None taken."

Clary turns and looks out of the window as she smiles and bites down on her thumb nail. "I never knew I could feel like this towards someone." she tells Maia. "It's so wonderfully all consuming. We are having dinner, by the way. I gave him your address to pick me up at." she says as she looks worriedly back over at Maia. "I hope that's okay."

"That's fine." Jordan calls from the front seat since they live together.

"Clary." Maia says seriously as she levels her eyes at her. "He is going to have to find out sooner or later what your last name is and who your family is."

Clary's face immediately is wiped clean of any trace of a smile as she thinks about that. "I know." she says somberly. "I'll tell him if we don't burn out and make it to a week from today. Okay?" Maia gives her a tight nod and Clary turns to look back out the window as Jordan drives them home. "I just want one week of this...whatever it is with him before my name ruins it. Then maybe it won't matter so much."

"Oh Clary." Maia sighs as she reaches over and takes her friend's hand. "We both know that it will always matter."


	5. Chapter 5

Jace gets in the SUV to find Max sleeping in the drivers seat. "Did you have a good nap?" he asks as he laughs while watching a tiny bit of drool run down his face.

Max startles awake and goes to reach for the gun under the steering wheel when he looks over at a smiling Jace. "It's about time. I've been waiting for hours." Max says as he wipes his mouth off.

"I just lost track of time." Jace tells him with a smile. "She's beautiful, isn't she?" he asks looking over at his best friend's little brother.

"I'll have to admit that she is pretty hot." he says as he cranks the car up and buckles himself in. "You seem to like her a lot...which is really saying something for you. I have never seen you do anything other than sleep with a woman then kick her out."

"She's different." Jace says thoughtfully as the car starts to move. "There's just something about her. I don't know what it is but, she's just different."

"I could see that. Are you mad that I left you alone?"

"No. I liked being completely alone with her. It was nice knowing that someone wasn't watching my every move." Jace admits to him. "That is why I am telling you to drop me off and go home. I am going to dinner with her and I don't want anyone hovering over us."

"But Jace." Max says uneasily. "That is our job. To keep you safe."

"Has anyone ever tried to harm or kill me at anytime over the past ten years?" Jace asks defensively. "No. There hasn't. No one is stupid enough to try anything."

"The Morgensterns might." Max offers.

"No they won't." Jace says surely. "No one wants to go through that nightmare again unless they have lost their minds."

* * *

They all pull up to the Morgenstern mansion just as the sun goes down and her and Maia walk through the front door while Jordan takes his post outside with the other guards. "What should I wear?" Clary asks her friend as they make their way towards stairs in the middle of the house. "I don't know." Maia tells her. "Maybe that green shirt of yours that..."

"Clary." a familiar voice interrupts from behind her. They both freeze for a fraction of a second before turning around to see Sebastian has stepped out of the library to the left of the foyer. Clary looks back to Maia who gives her a nod and then continues to the stairs to wait for Clary in her room.

"What are you doing here, Sebastian?" Clary asks softly as she walks over to him.

"Since you won't return any of my calls or messages, I came here. Your mom let me in." Sebastian explains.

"Of course she did." Clary mutters under her breath as she passes him and leads him back into the library. He shuts the door behind him and then they are alone. "Sebastian, I meant what I said last night." she says as she turns around to face him. "We don't belong together. We are better off as friends."

"I don't believe that for one second." Sebastian says fervently as he takes a step towards her.

"Well I do." she says back to him. "I tried to change the way I felt. I tried to convince myself that I was in love with you. But at the end of the day, I'm just...not." She lets out a long breath as she closes her eyes and runs a hand through her hair. "I mean, I love you. I'm just not _in love_ with you. I have felt this way for a long time." She opens her eyes to look at an upset looking Sebastian. "I was going to break up with you last night."

"I don't believe that you aren't in love with me and that you never have been." When Sebastian says that, it almost sounds like he is trying to convince himself of that fact. "We make each other happy."

"No." Clary says as she levels her eyes at him. "We get along great because we were meant to be friends and nothing more. That is as far as my feelings go for you. You will just have to accept that."

Sebastian is staring back at her and he looks like he really wants to say something. His face is turning a little red as he looks at her and she can see the wheels turning in his head as he mulls something over. After a minute passes of a very loaded silence, his shoulders visibly slump and his face relaxes into more of a defeated and resigned look. "You will regret this one day, Clary." he tells her sounding very sad. "I love you and I would give you the world if only you would've let me."

Clary looks sadly at Sebastian as he turns and leaves the library. She can hear him shut the front door after he walks through it and she brings her fingers up to rub her temples. "Where is he going?" Jocelyn asks from the door of the library, startling Clary.

"He's leaving." she says as she looks up to her mother. "Thanks for dropping that bomb in my lap with no warning, Mom." She then walks towards the door of the room and passes by her mother who is looking slightly angry with her daughter.

"He said he wants to work things out with you." Jocelyn says as she follows her.

"That might be an option if I was in love with him...which I am not so would you please stay out of my love life?"

"Clary!" Jocelyn says in her most motherly tone. "Come back here." Clary had started to climb the stairs and looked down to her mother at the foot of them disinterestedly. "I am going to change and go to Maia's." she tells her and leaves her angry mother at the foot of the stairs.

* * *

"Oh my God." Clary says excitedly and nervously at the same time. "He's here. That's his car." she says as she points down at the Aston Martin that just rolled up outside of the brownstone that Maia and Jordan live in.

"Are you sure you don't want me to at least follow the two of you?" Jordan asks for the millionth time worriedly.

"I will kill you if you follow us." Clary says flatly as she turns and looks at him.

"And your father will kill me if anything happens to you and I let you go out by yourself." Jordan replies dryly and Clary rolls her eyes. "No he wouldn't because I would then kill him."

 _Knock, knock, knock._

Clary's adrenaline spikes as she smooths down her hair and walks over to the door. She takes a deep breath as she turns the door knob and opens the door.

Jace looks absolutely beautiful. He is wearing a black sweater with a black leather jacket over it and dark jeans. He looks like a total bad boy and she bites her bottom lip at the sight of him. "Hey." she says when she looks up at his eyes.

"Hey to you too." Jace says with a sexy smile as he steps forward and kisses her. The longer his lips are pressed against hers, the more her legs start to feel like jelly and the more she leans into Jace for support.

"Ahemm." Maia clears her throat and the two of them break apart. Clary's cheeks are a bright red when she turns and looks at her friend. "Don't forget your jacket." she tells Clary and steps forward and hands her her brown leather jacket that matches her ankle boots perfectly. "And don't do anything I wouldn't do." Maia adds on at the end and Clary smiles at her. "That means I can do pretty much anything I want in that case." she says as she steps out of the brownstone.

"Do you live with Jordan and Maia?" Jace asks as he helps her down the few stairs.

"Um, no." Clary answers sheepishly. "I still live with my parents. Is that lame?"

"Only a little." Jace says with a smile and Clary playfully hits him. "No. It's not lame." he clarifies as they reach his car. He opens the door for her and she gets in the passenger seat as he runs over to get in his side. When he does, he looks over at her and asks, "Where exactly do you live though?"

Clary looks away from him and down to her hands in her lap. She takes a deep breath before she looks up at him again. "I don't want to tell you." she says quietly. Jace's brows furrow in confusion and then his face turns somewhat upset and Clary quickly continues. "But it's not because I don't _want_ you to know. It's...complicated." she says pleadingly. "Jace. I don't want to lie to you. My last name has a tendency to scare people away or attract them for the wrong reasons. That is one of the reasons why I like you so much. You don't know my last name and so I know that you actually like me for me."

Jace's face softens a little as he reaches over and holds her face as his thumb rubs up and down her cheek. "You can tell me your last name. I promise mine will be worse than yours."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Clary asks him curiously.

"It means that you aren't the only one who has purposefully not said their last name for fear of scaring the other off." Jace explains and Clary smiles widely as she begins to laugh.

"Well, aren't we just the perfect couple." she says with a smile. "We are both trying to hide who we are."

"Why don't we just blurt out our last names on the count of three?" Jace suggests and her eyes widen with fear.

"No!" she almost shouts. "I mean...why don't we agree to wait a week. See where this goes between us. If we still want to date each other or be together or...whatever this is between us, then we tell."

Jace leans into her with a gentle smile and places a soft kiss on her lips. When he pulls back, he looks into her eyes and says, "That sounds like a deal." and then gives her a breathtakingly sexy smile.

Jace takes Clary to a small diner named Taki's that happens to be amazing. It is some of the best food she has ever tasted even though the people in the diner look a little sketchy, even to a mob bosses daughter. They then go and see a movie while Clary cuddles into his side the whole time. The walk around for a few blocks until they come to a frozen yogurt store where they decide to go inside and fix the other's cup. He looks over at her with an evil glint in his eyes as he approaches the yogurt machine and she is suddenly sure that he will make her something disgusting.

Clary rises to the challenge and gives Jace a mixture of butter pecan and watermelon flavored ice cream and then covers it with cherry sauce and butterfingers. Jace gives Clary peach and butter pecan ice cream and then sprinkles peppermint flakes and caramel sauce on it. He stomach turns at the sight of it. 'Why do I have to be so damn competitive?' she thinks to herself when he hands her the ice cream concoction. Looking at him, she knows that he is turning this into a challenge. The first one to stop eating, loses.

The two of them sit down at a small table as they look into each other's eyes challengingly. She narrows her eyes at him as she silently picks up her spoon and shoves it into her ice cream. Jace does the same thing and then they are bringing the spoons up to their mouths. They both hesitate as they look down at what they are about to ingest and then Clary is the first one to take the bite...and it is absolutely horrible. The tangy flavor mixed with the savory flavor of the caramel and the sweet mix of the peach ice cream is almost enough to make her puke right then and there.

She closes her eyes tightly and quickly swallows and looks over to Jace who is smiling as he takes another bite of his. He smiles easily at her as he puts the spoonful in his mouth and swallows slowly. She narrows her eyes at him, trying to figure out how he is not about to puke and dives her spoon in and pulls out an even bigger bite of hers and brings it to her mouth. She shudders with disgust when she puts it in her mouth and hurriedly swallows it as Jace raises one eyebrow at her like he is waiting for her to quit at any moment.

He then brings another large spoonful of his up to his mouth and smiles widely as he puts it in his mouth and actually looks like he is savoring the bite. She then looks down at hers and swallows roughly as the thought of eating another spoonful courses through her. She is not looking forward to it. Clary takes a deep breath as she pulls another bite to her mouth but hesitates when she brings it to her lips. The various colors of the concoction of it are starting to melt together making it look even more disgusting. She pulls it closer to her lips and the moment she feels the coldness of the ice cream on it, she lowers the spoon and shakes her head as she looks at Jace and says, "You win."

He then stands up and raises his hands over his head in triumph as some of the people in the shop look at him disinterestedly. "Did everyone hear that?" he says as he looks around. "She just forfeited an admitted that I have won!"

Clary reaches across the table with and amused smile and gives him a light and playful punch in the stomach as he laughs loudly and sits back down. "Thank goodness you gave up." He tells her. "I don't know how much longer I could keep eating that with a smile on my face. It took everything I had to make you think that it didn't effect me."

Clary's mouth falls open with surprise and then she is smiling and laughing as she shoves her ice cream away.

* * *

 **Five days later...**

"I hate that I won't get to see much of you tomorrow." Clary whines into the phone.

"Me too." Jace replies. "But I have to go to that meeting."

"I know." Clary says as she rolls over onto her back where she is laying on her bed. "I know you are happy that your father included you this year. I know you will do great."

"God, I miss you already." Jace says fervently.

Clary smiles warmly into the phone as she hears Jace say that. The past five days have arguably been the best five days of her life. Her and Jace have spent every free second of their day either together or talking on the phone or texting. She has had a permanent smile on her face and her mother has even started to ask about it. She can't help it. She is pretty sure that she is already in love with him. Jace makes her laugh and smile and everything about him is perfect for her.

"It's only been an hour since I saw you." she says back to him. "But I know what you mean. I miss you too. Tell me again what time you think we can meet up tomorrow."

Jace takes a deep breath and blows it out. "I don't know for sure. This meeting can either go by really quickly or take a really long time. But I am determined to take you to dinner tomorrow night."

"Good." Clary says with a smile. "Because I might have to track you down if I don't get to see you."

"I like that idea." Jace says lowly into the phone. "I would love to come home and find you waiting for me."

"Why is it again that we aren't together right now?" Clary asks.

"Because your brother is coming home and I have to sit down with my father and get ready for tomorrow." Jace answers.

"Ugh. I still don't like..." The door to Clary's bedroom swings open and her brother Jonathan comes into view.

"There's my little leprechaun!" Jonathan shouts and Clary rolls over onto her stomach and pushes up onto her knees. "Jon!" she shouts in surprise and happiness.

"I can hear him. I'll let you go." Jace says sounding like he has a smile on his face.

"Call me later, okay?" Clary says lowly and softly to him.

"Always." he says and then the line goes dead. Clary jumps off of her bed and Jonathan wraps her up in his outstretched arms. "God, I missed my little leprechaun." he says as he sets her down. She really does look like a leprechaun next to his six-foot two frame.

"Where's Kaelie?" Clary asks and looks around him.

"She's downstairs with mom."

"How was your month long vacation to the Caribbean?" Clary asks him.

"It was great." he replies as he tucks her under his arm and starts to pull her back down stairs. "Getting to see Kaelie in her bathing suit everyday sure did make up for how mad Dad was at me when I told him I was going to leave for a month."

Clary shudders as she thinks about how angry their father had been when he told him he was leaving with his girlfriend. Honestly, I think he and Kaelie just needed to get away. He said that things between them had become strained and they were going to try and work on their two year long relationship to see if they were still in love. "How are things between the two of you?" she asks her brother.

"They're better. Not perfect, but definitely better."

"That's good." Clary replies with a smile. "I don't know if you will ever find anyone else who will put up with you because of how annoying you are." Jonathan then reaches down and pulls his sister into a head lock and gives her a noogie. "I knew you were going to do that." Clary says as she escapes his hold and runs her fingers through her hair while laughing.

"So," Jonathan says casually as they walk down the stairs, "who were you talking to just then? You had the biggest smile on your face."

"Well..." Clary says as she looks up to her brother, "Mom told you about me and Sebastian, right?"

"How he asked you to marry him and you broke up with him?" he asks and she nods her head yes. "I could see that coming from a mile away. You never loved him."

"Please explain that to Mom." Clary says exasperatedly. "But anyway," she says as she looks down at her feet as they descend, "I met a guy right after I broke up with Sebastian. I was feeling stressed and he asked me out for a drink and I said yes."

Jonathan looks expectantly down at her until she continues. "We have spent every free moment since then either together or talking to each other." Clary's cheeks start to flame a little red as she talks. "I really, _really_ like him Jon. I can't stop smiling all of the time. I know it sounds crazy but...I am pretty sure I am in love with him. He makes me so happy and I...I've never felt like this before. I get butterflies at just the thought of him and my heart beats uncomfortably hard. All I want is to be around him and..." Clary's face falls as she looks up at Jon and says as she comes to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, "...the best and worst part about it all is that he doesn't know who I am. He doesn't know my last name and I am absolutely terrified that he will run away when he does know."

Jonathan looks down at his little sister and sees genuine fear in her eyes. Clary has never been the romantic type or the type of girl that goes gaga over a boy so when he looks down at her and sees that fear, he knows that whoever this guy is, she is serious about him. That if he were to reject her after finding out what her last name is, it would kill her. "What has happened since I've been gone?" Jon asks seriously as he looks at Clary. "You are serious about this guy...after just a week?"

"Like I said, I know it sounds crazy but I am." she answers him. "Mom said that she knew after her and Dad's fourth date that she was in love with him and he said he fell in love with her the moment he saw her. We see how much they love each other still. I never thought that much about it until it happened to me. I know how impossible it sounds, Jon, but you have to tell me that I'm not crazy for saying that I am probably in love with him."

"You're not crazy, Clary." Jon says as he puts a hand on her shoulder. "It's just a shock coming from you. You have always been skeptical and very non-romantic and not a sappy kind of girl. That's how I know that when you talk about this guy like you are, you are serious and sure of yourself. Although, I am assuming you haven't told Mom about him?" Clary shakes her head no. "Because she still thinks that you and Sebastian will get back together."

Clary heavily rolls her eyes. "I know she does. Do you think I should tell her about him?"

"I think the sooner you tell our parents anything, the better it will be. They definitely don't like to be the last to know things." Jonathan says as they start to walk again towards the kitchen where everyone is.

When they get there, Kaelie wraps Clary in a big hug. Her and Jonathan have been together for a while and she is good for him. She 'tamed the beast' as my mother likes to say. "Hey, Mom. Can I talk to you for a minute?" Clary asks sheepishly. She then looks over to her dad who is trying to sneak some candy from the candy jar. "And you too dad." He tosses a few pieces of chocolate in his mouth as Jocelyn narrows her eyes at him. "Did you forget about your diet, dear?" she asks as he walks over to her and kisses her on the cheek.

"Let's go in my office." Valentine says and leads them to it through the living room. Jocelyn and Valentine sit down in the leather love seat in his office while Clary sits across from them in a red stuffed cloth chair. She takes a deep breath and looks her mother in the eyes as she says, "You have been asking me why I have been in such a good mood and why I have been smiling so much lately, right?"

Her mother nods her head and says, "Yes. But you won't tell me."

"She always tells us when she is ready to tell us Jocelyn." Valentine says to his wife. "I've told you that."

"Well..." Clary says unsurely as she looks back and forth between her parents, "I met someone...the night I broke up with Sebastian."

"You did what?" her mother says loudly. Valentine reaches out and places his hand on her leg and gives it a gentle squeeze and she looks over at him and sits back with a slight scowl on her face when she looks back at Clary.

"I know how much you like Sebastian, Mom, and how you want us to get back together, but that is never going to happen." she says flatly while making eye contact with her. "Not after meeting Jace." She looks over to her dad. "He's great, Dad. I haven't been able to stop smiling since I met him. Both of you have seen that." She looks to her mom. "The night I came home from the restaurant, I was smiling when you turned on the light and it was because I met Jace. We have seen each other everyday since. I have been ditching my protection detail by giving them the wrong schedules and going to spend time with him." She doesn't want her protection team to get in trouble so she is going to take the hit for them from her father. "We talk on the phone when we aren't together and he just makes me so happy. I didn't ever think that I would turn into the sappy romantic that he has turned me into. I know that I should have told the both of you but...I didn't want to jinx it. I didn't want you to get mad at me because I just broke up with Sebastian. But Dad," she looks back to him, "I think this guy is it. I can't help the way I feel about him and I can't hide it anymore. Please don't be mad at me."

Both Jocelyn and Valentine sit there for a few seconds in silence. Jocelyn looks like she is in an angry kind of shocked state while Valentine looks very thoughtful and analytical at her. "Are you going to allow this, Val?" her mother says almost angrily. Valentine doesn't say a word and just keeps looking at his daughter analytically. "Well...are you?" Jocelyn angrily asks him again.

He leans forward and looks at his daughter and says, "Yes. I am." Before Jocelyn can protest, he looks over at her and says, "We have both noticed how happy she has been and have noticed how she can't stop smiling this past week. Don't try to deny it."

Jocelyn closes her mouth and then furrows her brows at her husband and then looks back over to Clary. "So you and Sebastian are done?" she asks.

Clary lets out a huge huff of air and lets her face fall into her hands. "That is what I have been trying to tell you this whole time." She looks up from her hands and to her mother. "I am not in love with him. Actually...I am in love with Jace." Clary feels an overwhelming sense of relief when she says that out loud. She has been dancing around saying it out loud and with such conviction as she just said it that she now feels somewhat liberated by saying it. "I don't know how or when it happened...all I know now is that I am in love with him. Like how you said you were with Dad on your fourth date." She looks pleadingly at her mom then. "Please understand, Mom. I don't want you to be mad at me."

"She's not." her father says as he scoots forward on his seat. "His name is Jace...?"

Clary sits back a little in her chair and looks guiltily at her father. "I don't know his last name." She sees her mom roll her eyes and an annoyingly smug smile starts to spread across her face. "But there is a reason for that." she adds on quickly. "He doesn't know my last name either. I didn't want to scare him away and he said he didn't want to do the same with me. Apparently, his last name is somewhat famous as well. We agreed to tell each other our last names in two days. One week after our first date so we can decide if how we feel about each other can cancel out whatever trouble our last names bring."

"You mean to tell me that my daughter has no idea who she is in love with?" her father says.

"I know who he is just not his last name, just like he doesn't know mine." Clary tells him. "I know what you are thinking and I have been perfectly safe with him."

"I want to meet him as soon as possible, Clarissa." Valentine says sternly to her. She looks over to him and hesitantly gives him a nod of agreement and secretly dreads that day.

* * *

"How is Clary?" Jace's mother asks him as he eats breakfast in the kitchen with her. He has come over so he can ride with his father to the meeting this morning.

"She's great." Jace says with a wide smile.

Celine looks at her son and can't help but grin at him. It is very clear that he is completely enthralled by Clary and she couldn't be happier for her son. She also absolutely loves that he tells her and Stephen pretty much everything. She made it a point when he was growing up to make it to where they are all really close with one another. They don't have many secrets between the three of them. "Are you concerned about her learning our your last name?"

Jace's face falls just a little as he looks up from his food and to his mother. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't. But on the other hand, she also didn't want me to know her name because she says that it scares people off or attracts them for the wrong reason."

"That could mean a million things." Celine remarks.

"I know." Jace says almost somberly. "It's time to go, Mom." he says as he walks around to her and gives her a kiss on her cheek. "I can hear Dad coming down the stairs."

"Let's go." Stephen says as he appears in the kitchen door. Jace hurries over to his father and then they are walking towards the door. They have both gone into business mode as not a word was said for the next twenty minutes.

"Are you ready?" Stephen Herondale asks his son.

"Of course." Jace responds easily. "I have been for years."

"Good, because we're here." his father says and he looks up to see the office of the Morgenstern family out of the window of the car. It was Valentine's year to host the meeting this year so they went to his place of business. Jace and his father step out of the SUV with a full security team surrounding them. Jace buttons his suit jacket and begins to walk forward with his father by his side. They walk into the modern building and go up to the tenth floor. When Jace and his father step out of the elevator with Max and the other guards, some of Valentine's burly men open two big double doors to the left.

"Only two of your men." one of the guards says. Jace looks to his left at Max while Stephen looks to his right at his man, James, and the four of them walk towards the room. When they get to the open doors, Jace can see that it is a grand and modern office with the back wall being made of glass that has a shade pulled down over it to block out most of the sunlight that is coming in. There is a bookcase along the right wall and a seating area just in front of an empty desk. Jace recognizes Valentine Morgenstern instantly from where he is rising from a leather chair in the seating area. To his left is who he is assuming is Jonathan Morgenstern, his son, by the striking resemblance he holds to his father.

Just then, Jace sees movement from the corner of his eye and looks to the right of the door and is in shock when he sees Clary's friend Jordan standing guard there. His eyes widen as he makes eye contact with him and Jordan suddenly looks very scared and uncomfortable. 'Why the hell is Jordan here?' he thinks to himself. He remembers briefly him saying that he did security work but he left out who it was for. Plus, Valentine wouldn't let just anyone in the room with him when he is going to conduct such sensitive business. That means that he is a trusted man of his. Maybe Clary doesn't know. She said that her and Maia met Jordan only two years ago.

But...why did Clary not want to tell him her last name? She said that it ruins everything and that it might scare him away. He never questioned why she would say that until now while looking at Jordan who has the look of utter horror on his face.

"Jonathan." his father says catching his attention. He turns his head over to him and sees the questioning look on his face. "Sorry father. I was just admiring the office. It is exactly my taste." He smiles easily over at Valentine and holds his hand out. "Hello Mr. Morgenstern." Valentine extends his hand and shakes it firmly. "It's nice to finally meet you in person."

He then looks over to his son and shakes his hand. "You too, Jonathan." Jace says and then they sit down.

Jace takes one last look over to Jordan who is still watching him intently and knows that he has to figure out what is going on. Why would Clary, an artist, be hanging around one of Valentine Morgenstern's guards? He also has to make sure that Jordan isn't the one to tell Clary who he is.

"First things first." Valentine says and Jace pours all of his attention into the two men in front of him. Valentine looks firmly at Stephen Herondale as he says, "One of my men told me that he saw your son driving in Brooklyn two days ago late at night near my home."

"My son is dating a girl that lives in Brooklyn." Stephen replies easily.

"She lives about six blocks from your home, sir." Jace cuts in. "I am sorry if my presence there has caused any concern. I only drive there to pick her up and then we go back into Manhattan."

Valentine leans back just a little as he looks thoughtfully at Jace and then gives him a tight nod. "As long as you don't come any closer to my home, I don't think that will be a problem."

"Of course." Jace replies easily.

The men then get into conducting business. They discuss modifying routes through the different burrows that are needed to move whatever product that they have and talk about mutual 'clients' like Hodge Starkweather. They both agree to keep an eye on him, and others like him, and stop them from hiding in the safety of one of their territories to escape paying what they owe to the other family. Jace's ideas and compromises he offers make things go very smooth between the four men. Jace and Jonathan even share a few light jokes between the two of them occasionally. It takes about four and a half hours but they finally work out all of the details just as one o'clock nears.

They all stand up and shake hands with serious faces and then Jace remembers Jordan standing in the corner. He looks over to him and puts a hand in is pocket to grab the burner phone that he keeps with him at all times. It comes in handy in his line of work. As he is walking past Jordan who has moved to open the door for the men, he 'trips' over his own feet and reaches out to catch himself as he falls towards Jordan.

When Jordan reaches out to catch him, Jace very covertly gives him the phone in his hand and as Jace is standing back up with a laugh, he sees Jordan quickly tuck it into his pants pocket. "Don't know what happened there." Jace says with a little laugh when Jonathan looks questioningly at him. He is definitely suspicious of Jace's sudden loss of balance but seems to shrug it off after a few seconds.

Once they are out of the building, his father slips back in the SUV that they came in and Jace stops just before he gets in. "I am going to go in another car with Max. There is something that I have to do."

Stephen furrows his brows questioningly but gives him a nod and another guard takes Jace's place in the seat next to him. Jace and Max then move to the car that is waiting behind his father's and hop in just as his father takes off. Once the car door is shut, Jace pulls out his phone and texts the burner phone. "Can you get away to talk?" he texts. Max gets in the driver's seat and takes off as he glances at Jace with a wild look in his eyes.

"Wasn't that guy in the corner the same guy from the picnic with Clary?" he asks Jace.

"Yes." he replies tightly. "I slipped him a burner." Just then his phone pings with a text. "I will call in twenty minutes." it says simply. Jace purses his lips as he reads the message and then closes out his screen and slips it back in his pocket. "He is going to call in twenty minutes." Jace tells Max. "I don't know what the hell is going on but I am going to find out. I don't want Clary anywhere near the Morgensterns or their men." He looks out of the window after glancing back down at the clock and seeing that only a minute has passed. This is going to be the longest nineteen minutes of his life.


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry about the long wait. Most of you know that I update multiple times a week and it's been almost a week since I posted the last chapter. I have been struggling with writing another story that I just can't seem to get write and to a place that I am happy with it. So..I am going to focus on this one for a while. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

As always, don't forget to follow and review! Your feedback is very appreciated!

* * *

Max drove Jace back across into Manhattan with Jace looking at his phone every minute or two. Time was moving so slowly. Jace told Max to pull over and they stopped in front of some coffee shop and parked there. Max kept glancing nervously at Jace who looked like he was going to burst with anticipation while waiting for the phone call.

He looked back down at his phone again and saw that sixteen minutes had passed and cursed under his breath. He hated not knowing things. Especially big things and Clary hanging out with Valentine Morgenstern's men was definitely a big thing. He didn't like the thought of her being around someone who could attract danger like Valentine's men surely could.

The sudden sound of Jace's dry laughter filled the car then as he thought about how hypocritical he was being in that moment. His father was a fucking mob boss and he would eventually take over the business. If anyone was putting her in danger it was him.

Jace jumped when his phone starting to ring and echoed through the car. He slid his thumb over and pressed the phone to his ear. "Hello." he said into the phone.

"Is this some sort of joke to you?" the voice on the other end of the line asks.

"What is that supposed to mean." Jace says. "I should be asking you that. You said you worked in security but failed to mention for who."

"That's because Clary didn't want me to tell you." Jordan says defensively and then it goes quiet for a beat before he says, "Wait. You really don't know who Clary is? You looked surprised when you saw me in that room."

"That's because I was." Jace says back to him. "You said that Clary didn't want you to tell me that you worked for the Morgensterns which means that she knows that you work for them. Why would she associate herself with someone as dangerous as you?"

"Wow." Jordan says slowly with amazement. "That's rich coming from a crime boss such as yourself."

"Spare the lesson on hypocrisy." Jace says dryly. "I am well aware of it."

"Listen." Jordan says a little more seriously this time. "You need to tell Clary who the hell you are. I am giving you twenty-four hours to do that and if you don't, I am going to tell her myself and then Mr. Morgenstern. And trust me when I say that you _do not_ want that to happen."

"Why would Valentine care about me dating Clary?" Jace asks surprised.

"Because he would." Jordan answers with a stern voice. "Twenty-four hours. That is all I am going to give you to tell her before I do."

The line goes dead and Jace curses under his breath through his clenched teeth. That phone call didn't help at all. It gave him no real information. He found out that Clary knows who he works for and that Valentine would care that she was dating him. That left him with more questions than he had to begin with. None of it made sense. And to top it all off, he now had a deadline to tell her who he was. If she knew who the Morgensterns were then she was surely going to know who the Herondales were. Who knows what she has heard about his family. The Herondales were probably completely vilified by the Morgensterns and his men and she might think that he was completely evil just because of his name.

But on the other hand, if she was willing to have Jordan as a friend, then maybe she wouldn't be too bothered by what he does and who he is. "Fuck." he mutters again. Who the hell is he kidding? Of course she'll care. Being friends with one of Valentine's men was one thing and dating the son of a mob boss was another one completely. The last thing he wanted was for Clary to reject him because of his last name. The thought actually caused him physical pain. His chest tightened and his heart started to beat uncomfortably under his ribs like they had started to collapse and crush his organs. In the span of a week, his life had become dependent on her presence in it. The moment he tried to imagine her not being in it, his body had a negative physical reaction to it.

"Jace." Max says, breaking the silence in the car and the internal dialogue in his head. Jace looks over to him to see his worried and confused face. "You have been sitting there for ten minutes since you got off the phone with that guy and haven't looked away from that one spot on the sidewalk outside of the window. Are you alright?"

Jace smiles wryly at Max. "He gave me twenty-four hours to tell her who I am. If I don't, then he will tell her and then Valentine Morgenstern. Why he would care, I don't know, but he says that he would."

"What do you want me to do?" Max asks as he looks to the steering wheel.

"I guess take me back to my parents place so I can get my car and then I am going to see Clary." he tells him. "Apparently we no longer have two days left until we find out who the other is." Max puts the SUV in drive and takes off. Jace takes his suit jacket off and then picks up his phone again and dials Clary and she picks up on the second ring. "Well, hello there." she says in a sexy voice that makes him smile widely.

"Hey baby." Jace replies easily. His body instantly relaxes when he hears her voice. Just the sound of her voice melts away whatever stress he feels about the whole situation. "I'm done with the meeting and I can't wait to see you. How soon do you think you can be ready. I am almost to my car." he tells her as they turn onto the street where his car is.

"Um..." Clary says and then pauses for a minute before finishing. "About twenty-five minutes."

"That's perfect." he says. "I am coming to get you."

"Where are you taking me?" she asks. Her voice is light and curious and Jace can tell that there is a smile on her lips.

"I was thinking my place. Something came up and I want to be able to talk with you alone."

"Are you trying to get me alone so you can try and get into my pants?" she asks and then there is a slight pause before she says, "Because it just might work."

Jace lets out a little laugh and tries to push away the thoughts of Clary naked and on his bed out of his mind. "Maybe, maybe not. You will just have to find out."

"Okay. I can't wait to see you." she says longingly into the phone.

"Me too." Jace says as he sighs. "I'll see you soon."

"Bye." she says breathily. "I lo..." she starts to say and then she stops. "I'll see you soon." she says quickly and then hangs up. He swears she was going to say something else but quickly forgets about it when he starts to think about how he is going to tell her his name. Should he lead up to it or just say it really quickly like he is ripping off a band-aid? What he did know was that this is not how he wanted to tell her.

* * *

He pulls up outside of Maia and Jordan's place and turns off his car. He hops out and just as his left foot touches the bottom stair to the brownstone, the door opens and Clary steps through wearing a tight green shirt that matched the beautiful color of her eyes perfectly and dark wash jeans. 'My God, she's gorgeous.' Jace thinks to himself as a shit-eating grin spreads across his face at the sight of her. "Catch me." she says and then she launches herself the four steps down and into Jace's arms. He catches her with ease, her body pressing the length against his, and she wraps her arms around his neck and brings her lips to his.

As they kiss, he slowly sets her down but doesn't let an inch of space come between them. Her hands were slowly making their way into his hair while his were on her lower back and in between her shoulder blades, pressing her against him. She tries to pull away but Jace isn't having any of it. The whole way over here he couldn't stop thinking about if she decided that she didn't want to be with him because of who he is. Before the meeting, he was very sure that she wouldn't care. But after he talked to Jordan, doubt had started to creep it's way into his mind. If this was the last kiss he was going to get, he was going to take all that she would give him in this moment.

Jace brought one of his hands up her back and threaded his fingers into her thick hair. Clary made a moaning sound into his mouth as his fingers rubbed her scalp and he pulled her tighter to him. Her hands tightened around his neck and she pulled back for a second to suck in a breath and said, "Jace." on an exhale of breath. He looked down into her eyes and something clicked in him. His heart swelled immensely in his chest making everything feel tight as a million butterflies filled his stomach. It was the most unexpected yet wonderful feeling he had ever experienced. It hit him like a ton of bricks and actually stole his breath away. It almost felt like he was...in love with her.

Before he could think too much into this theory, he pulled her back to him and crashed his lips against hers. He needed her lips on his in this moment. He licked her lip and then she opened her mouth to let him in. He sucked in a long, deep breath through his nose as he deepened the kiss and let out a little moan of his own as his heart raced in his chest. All he could think in this moment was how every fiber of his being was feeling when he had Clary in his arms. It was the best feeling in the entire world.

He finally let her pull back after a minute and closed his eyes as he rested his forehead on hers. They were both breathing heavily as they tried to slow down their rapid heart beats while Clary's hands were cupping Jace's face. He turned his head to the side and placed a soft kiss on one of her palms as he scrunched his eyes shut tighter. "That was one hell of a a kiss." she whispers. "What was it for?"

Jace opened his eyes and brought one of his hands up to her face and looked into her beautiful green eyes. "I just need you to know how I feel about you and that was the best way for me to do it at this point." He shakes his head a little as he says, "I just...can't seem to find the right words right now to..." He was clearly struggling and she seemed to see that.

"Hey." Clary says softly gaining his attention. "I heard you." she whispers and then reaches up again and gives him a soft and chaste kiss.

When he opens his eyes, he can see that there is some big emotion that is swimming in them and his hand smooths over her cheek as he watches her have some internal debate that is raging just below the surface. She opens her mouth to say something and then closes it before she gets it out. When she opens it again, she says, "I...I..." and then she closes it again and he bends down and kisses her. Jace somehow knows what she is trying to say but understands that she may not be ready to say it to him just like he isn't ready to say it to her. He just barely pulls back from the kiss and his lips are brushing hers when he says lowly. "I know. Me too." His heart thumps unevenly in his chest as a tear rolls down her cheek and she pulls him back to her for a soft kiss. After a quick few seconds, she pulls back and wipes away another tear that has escaped her eyes and he smiles at her. "Are you ready to go?" he asks her softly.

She gives him a nod and then he lets go of her face and grabs her hand as he smiles at her and pulls her to his car. He opens the passenger door for her and she gets in. When he shuts it, Clary pulls down the visor to get a look at her face. The few tears that spilled over thankfully didn't make her mascara run so she runs her fingers through her hair to smooth down the fly-aways.

Jace opens his car door and gets in as she can't help but look over at him and smile widely. She is pretty sure that in some weird way, they just told each other that they love each other and it was exhilarating. It had only been a week but that didn't matter. They had spent every available second on the phone or together and she had fallen hard and fast. It wasn't hard at all to do with him. When it comes to 'the one', when you know...you just know. Every fiber of her was saying that she knew he was the one and it was terrifying and unbelievably amazing at the same time.

Clary reaches over and takes Jace's hand that is on his gear shift and kisses it and then places it on her leg. Right now, she just wants some part of him to be touching her. "How was your meeting?" Clary asks him after about ten minutes of comfortable silence.

Jace seems to tense up a little for a second as he says, "It was productive but I was shocked to see someone there that I didn't expect to see."

"Was that a good or a bad thing?" she asks as she looks over at him.

"I'm not sure just yet." he says unsurely. Something about his tone and the way he shifted slightly in his seat made her think that there was more to the story. She runs her fingers over his hand in a somewhat comforting gesture and he gives her a tiny smile that barely pulls up the corners of his mouth. Something was definitely bothering him but she wasn't going to ask him about it if he didn't want to talk about it.

"How has your day been so far?" Jace asks her.

"Pretty boring." she answers. "My brother had to go to work with my father and Jordan is working and Maia is at school. I haven't been doing much really. Just sketching."

Whenever she says that Jordan is working, he stiffens for a second and his face goes serious before he quickly wipes it away. She vaguely wonders what that was about but brushes it off, not thinking much about it. Clary is a little nervous about going to his place. They talked about keeping who they were a secret from each other for at least another two days so apparently, his place wasn't going to give away any clues.

They pull up to a beautiful building two blocks from central park and when Clary looks around, she can tell that this is where the filthy rich people lived. She knew that Jace was wealthy but seeing where he lives is another story.

He tosses his keys to a valet and then is pulling her into the modern looking lobby. The doorman smiles widely as he opens the door and Jace claps him on the back with a smile on his face. That is one thing that she likes about him. No matter who they are, Jace treats everyone the same. When they step into the elevator, he puts a key into the elevator and pushes the top floor button and then pulls his key back out. Clary raises a brow at him and as soon as the door closes, she pushes him against the back wall of the elevator and claims his lips.

He lets out a surprised noise in the back of his throat and then quickly recovers; wrapping his arms around Clary. Their tongues explore each other's mouths as the kiss gets more and more heated with every passing second. By the time they reach his floor and the elevator dings, both of them are almost completely breathless. When she pushes off of him and releases the hold she had on him, she is smirking mischievously at him as she slowly backs out of the elevator.

"What was that for?" he asks her.

"No particular reason." she says with a shrug of her shoulders. One side of Jace's mouth is then pulled up into a sexy half-smile as he follows after her.

"Well you should definitely do that more often...for no particular reason." he says as he steps out of the elevator and kisses her quickly one more time.

Clary then looks around and sees that there is only one door to the left of the elevator on this floor. "You're the only one up here?" she asks him.

"Yeah. I like my privacy." he says in response as he unlocks the three locks on his door. When the door swings open, Clary sucks in a small surprised breath. She takes a few slow steps into the penthouse while her eyes are pulled to the far wall. The whole wall is floor to ceiling windows that have the most amazing view of central park. You can see the buildings on the other side of the park as the sun shines down on them and reflects the light from it.

"Jace." Clary says breathlessly. "This view is incredible." She walks over to the wall after quickly noting the very clean and fairly modern decor of the apartment. It is almost like a fusion of modern and traditional decorating that gives the place a very homey and very Jace-like vibe. The floors are a very dark and sleek wood while the walls are either white or a soft gray with splashes of color from the art that is hung along it.

Jace walks up behind her and wraps his arms around her waist as she looks out of the window and places a kiss on her shoulder. "You like it?" he asks her quietly.

"It's beautiful, Jace." she says. She then turns her head and tips it back and kisses him briefly. "My parent's place is a little extravagant for my taste."

"Mine too." he responds with a smile. "Do you ever notice how when we talk about our parents, one of us is always saying that the same could be said for their parents?"

"I have noticed that." Clary says with a chuckle.

"Does it make you wonder what my last name is?" he asks her lowly trying to test the waters.

"Yes and no." she says as she turns around in his arms and drapes her arms around his neck. "I have decided that your last name doesn't matter. I couldn't care less what it is."

Looking down at her, he knows that this is the best opportunity he is going to get in the next twenty-four hours to tell her who he is. Jordan's words have been weighing heavily on him and his curiosity is starting to get the better of him.

"Well...I am glad that you said that because I ran into Jordan today." Jace says to her. She scrunches her brows in confusion and before she can ask any questions, he continues after locking his hands around her waist. "He found out who I am and gave me twenty-four hours to tell you my last name."

"But how would you run into him?" she asks. "He's been at work all day. And why would he suddenly be so concerned about you and me?"

"I'm getting to that." Jace says nervously and then takes a deep breath. He leans down and kisses her again one last time before he says it out loud. Her soft lips press gently against his and then he pulls back.

"Jace." she says worriedly as one of her hands comes around to cup his face. "What's the matter? You look really scared."

"That's because of who I am. I don't want you to run away when I tell you."

"Did you not just hear what I said just a minute ago?" Clary says as she looks deep into his eyes. "I have decided that your last name doesn't matter to me."

He closes his eyes and when he opens them, the confident look on her face helps him get the words out of his mouth. "Jace is just a nickname that my mother gave me. My full name is...Jonathan Curtis Herondale. Jace is short for my initials."

When he gets it out of his mouth, he watches in shock as Clary's pink face suddenly turns as white as a sheet. She pushes away from him and steps back as she locks eyes with him.

'He said his name was Jonathan Herondale.' Clary tells herself. The shock of the information is too much. She suddenly feels like she is going to faint. She pushes away from him and takes a few steps back as she looks at the worried look in his eyes. This can't be happening. He can't be a Herondale. The Herondale that is going to take over his father's business when the time comes. The Herondales who murdered her grandmother and aunt and the Herondales who have wanted the territory that her family has for decades. Her family's arch enemies. The ones that her father is constantly worrying about starting up a war again. The ones that her father has been trying to protect her from her whole life and now here she is; with a Herondale...alone and with no security.

Jace watches her and sees that her mind is running a hundred miles an hour. The look on her face isn't exactly comforting him and giving him the confidence he had just a minute ago. She clearly knows who his family is and is completely surprised and scared by it. "Clary, please don't be upset." he says as he takes a step towards her. She immediately takes one further away from him and he can see the fear in her eyes when he tries to take another one. He stops in his tracks after his heart lurches a little in pain at the sight that she is actually afraid of him. He would never dream of hurting her. "By your reaction, I see that you know who my family is and Jordan told me that you know who he works for. But whatever you've heard about my family..."

Clary cuts him off as he sees her face turn angry. "Was this some sort of sick joke to you?" she shouts at him. He is completely taken back by her words that were so similar to Jordan's.

"What are you talking about, Clary?" he asks her.

"What were you supposed to do?" she shouts at him again. "Seduce me and get me to fall for you so you can sneak your way in and take over everything from the inside?!"

"Clary, I have no idea what you are talking about." he says flatly to her.

"I'm sure you don't." she says sarcastically back at him. "I'm sure that you were at the restaurant by complete coincidence that night and just so happen to find me attractive and hit on me." She then stands up a little straighter and then starts to walk around his couch and to his door.

"Wait, Clary." Jace says as he starts to go after her. "Why are you leaving? I have no idea why you are so upset."

"Because I am a fucking idiot." she shouts at him. "I thought that you actually liked me and cared for me. I thought..." she shakes her head as her shoulders slump. "Just drop the act, _Jonathan_." she says in a snarky tone and starts towards the door again.

This time, Jace doesn't stop for fear of scaring her. He grabs her wrist and spins her around to where she is looking at him. "You obviously think I know who you are but I don't." he says sternly to her. "But between your reaction and Jordan's, I am assuming that you think that have known all along who you are." He lets go of her wrist and then looks pointedly down at her. "Well, I don't know who the hell you are and if you don't mind, would please tell me so that I know what the hell you are talking about. And for the record," Jace adds on, "I do care about you. More than you know."

She narrows her eyes at him and crosses her arms across her chest as she stands up straight. She studies him for a second and then starts to speak. "I guess your reaction to what my name is should tell me if you knew or not." She steps one step closer to him and is now in full Clary Morgenstern mode. The confident and scary one that can make grown men scared to even blink wrong in her direction. "Since you are a Herondale, I am sure you are familiar with the members of the Morgenstern family. I was wondering if you could name them for me."

"Why would I do that?" he asks completely confused.

"Just do it." she says exasperatedly.

Jace huffs out a breath and rolls his eyes before he says, "Valentine Morgenstern, his wife is Jocelyn Morgenstern. They have two children named Jonathan and Seraphina Morgenstern."

She gives him a humorless smile and says, "Seraphina Clarissa Morgenstern is her full name."

"Okay." Jace says with a dismissive tone.

"My God, you're dense." she says as she looks up at him. "My mother hated the name Seraphina but my father was dead set on it. So they compromised. My first name would be Seraphina, after my dead grandmother, but they would call me by my middle name. Clarissa. But that never stuck either and so they just called me Clary for short."

She watches as Jace's face goes white. His naturally tan skin starts to pale to an unnaturally sickly white color as what she told him sets in fully. His eyes widen as he looks at her and he takes a few unsteady steps back away from her. Clary studies him as he looks at her and she assumes that is exactly what she looked like when he told her who he is. She starts to slip out of her Morgenstern persona as she starts to see that he was telling the truth. The look on his face and the paling of his skin isn't something you can fake.

"Did you really not know?" she asks him as she takes a small step towards him. "Of course I didn't." Jace says as he finds his voice again and it comes out a little shaky as he tries to shake off the surprise of her name. "I have only ever seen Valentine and just today, I saw Jonathan Morgenstern."

"At the meeting." she says flatly. "I guess that is where you saw Jordan since one of my dad's guys got sick and he had to go in his place." The pieces started to click together perfectly now that she thought about it. Both of them saying that their names were well known and that people were either attracted to them for the wrong reasons or were scared off by it. The similar stories of their upbringing because they are both the children of mob bosses. The reason he always wanted to take her into Manhattan for their dates because he isn't supposed to be joy riding through the Morgenstern territories.

The room goes quiet and Clary drops her eyes from his and trains them on the floor as he does the same after running a hand through his hair. "What does this mean for us?" Clary asks quietly. She can't help but ask that question because right now, it feels like the first time that they kissed. Like she is on the edge of a cliff and is about to fall off except this time, she is unsure if Jace is going to be there to catch her. "I mean..." she says as she runs a hand through her hair, "..this definitely changes things between us."

Jace watches as Clary looks at the floor. Even though he can only see a small bit of her face, he can tell that she is nervous and is worried as she asks him that. He thinks about the situation he has gotten himself into and runs through the possibilities quickly in his head. This could create a new war between the families if Valentine were to find out and decide that he took advantage of Clary. His father had told him for years to stay away from them for fear of creating more conflict between them. He thinks about how hard any relationship that they have will be abnormally difficult because of who they are...but who the hell is he kidding. He doesn't give a shit about that.

He takes four purposeful steps over to her and pulls her face up by her chin with two of his fingers. When she brings her eyes up to his, he can see the tears there that are threatening to spill over. He searches her eyes for a moment before he finds what he is looking for. "Nothing has to change between us." he says confidently to her. "I don't give a shit what our names are. I stopped caring the moment I realized that I am in love with you, Clary. You are the only woman that I have ever felt _anything_ for and I refuse to let that go." His voice is confident and unwavering, even to his own ears. He knows that it was incredibly early to drop the 'I love you' bomb but it was true and he will do anything to not lose her over this.

Clary looks up at him as a tear finally spills over and Jace catches it with the thumb of his hand that has slid onto her cheek. He said that he loved her and there was no doubting what he said. The way he said it and the look in his eyes are all the confirmation that she needed. "I love you too, Jace." she says back to him as she brings her hands up to cup his face. "But..."

Jace shakes his head fervently and cuts her off. "No 'buts'. Just say that you love me again. Please." he says pleadingly. A small smile pulls up Clary's mouth as she blushes slightly. "I love you." she whispers back to him and he lets out a relieved breath. "I love you too." he replies. "That is all that matters." He doesn't waste a second before he pulls her lips up to his. She lets out a tiny startled breath as her lips are hesitant on his. He pulls her tighter to him and then she finally lets herself go.

Her lips soften and start to move in time with his. His tongue darts out to ask for entrance that she gives him. Their tongues slide against each other's as her hands slip around to the back of his head and bury themselves in his hair. One of his hands goes to the back of her neck and pulls her mouth harder into his as his other arm wraps around her waist and holds her body flush with his.

The kiss is hard and passionate and makes Jace feel like the room is spinning around them. Kind of like how they shoot kissing scenes in the movies with the camera endlessly circling. It feels like the world has stopped around him and that all that there is, is this moment between them. The moment that they told each other they loved each other and decided that who they were didn't really matter when it came to their happiness. All that mattered was right here and right now.

He breaks away reluctantly and then dips down and grabs the back of Clary's thighs and then is lifting her up. She looks surprised but quickly recovers and wraps her legs around his waist. She looks down and into his eyes and is taken back by the way he is looking at her. There is so much emotion that has bubbled to the surface of his eyes and she can see it all. The adoration, the attraction, the surprise that he loves her and most of all, she can see the love that he has for her as his eyes darken two shades.

She brings her hands around to his face and leans down and slowly brings her mouth to his and kisses him gently, putting all of her love for him into it. He shudders a little at the intensity of it and starts to walk with her over to the door of his room. He wants to show her just how much he loves her. He wants her to know that this wasn't just some game or ploy to get in with her family. He has to make her understand that he has fallen for her and there is no going back. He never thought in a million years that he was capable of falling in love with someone so completely. But here he is, with the woman he loves clinging to him as she moves her perfect lips against his. "I love you." he whispers against her mouth and she smiles widely at him as he turns the door knob to his room.

"I love you." she whispers back and then brings her mouth back to his. He walks over to his bed and lays her gently on top of the covers and then stands to look at her there. She looks so unbelievably beautiful with her hair splayed around her the way it is. Her beautiful bright green eyes are locked onto his and then she sits up and scoots over to him where he is standing beside the bed.

Her hands trail up and find the top button of his dress shirt and she pops it open. Their eyes are locked together as her fingers skillfully unbutton each button until it is completely undone. Her eyes break away from his and she looks down at his perfect chest. He has perfectly sculpted pecks and a beautifully sexy washboard stomach that makes her eyes widen a little with desire. Her hands slide up his chest, her eyes following her own movement, and slips her hands onto his shoulders and slides the shirt off of him. She sucks in a surprised breath when she notices that both of his arms are tatted from the elbow up and onto his shoulders and around and onto his back. She sucks in her bottom lip as her fingers run over the incredibly sexy tats that twine around his arm. The artist in her is in awe of the vibrant colors and she is curious as to the meaning behind some of them. "I didn't expect you to have tattoos." she says quietly to him.

"I have to look professional so they are where they are covered easily by clothing." Jace replies lowly. His hand dips down and pulls her face back up to his and he can see the desire that is pooling underneath the bright green of her eyes, turning them darker.

"You are so beautiful." she murmurs and then he can't stop himself any longer. The atmosphere in the room explodes with primal want and need as he grabs her by the waist and tosses her into the middle of his bed, his eyes never leaving hers. He climbs hurriedly onto the bed and places himself over Clary and finds her mouth with his. She lets out a little moan at the intensity of the kiss as her hands fly to his hair and tug on it gently.

His hands then go to the hem of her shirt and his fingers slip under it, touching her bare skin there for the first time. Clary lets out a little whimper at the sensation that she is getting from his touch on her skin and the electricity that is radiating from every graze of his fingers. His fingers push up her shirt a little more and then her hands are leaving his hair and she is pulling her shirt over her head and tossing it to the side.

Jace pulls back to look down at her. Her chest is moving up and down rapidly with her ragged breaths, making her breasts swell and push against her bra before dropping back down, and he takes in a shuddering breath as her hands go to his chest and her fingers dig into his skin lightly and trail down his abdomen. "Do you want this?" he asks her quietly as his gaze returns to her.

Clary then pushes up onto one of her elbows while the other hand comes up to touch his face. She raises her face to his and kisses him softly at first and then more passionately after a few seconds. When she pulls back, her hair is falling beautifully into her face making her look like a goddess. "I do want this. More than anything...Jonathan Herondale."

One corner of his mouth pulls up into a smile as she openly said his name. The sound of his name rolling out of her perfect pouty mouth sent a thrill through him like he had never experienced before. He had been skydiving and been in a car chase and had even been in a shootout once. But the thrill that all of those things gave him was absolutely nothing compared to the rush he got from her saying his name like that.

"I love you Clary Morgenstern." he whispered without even planning to. The way her eyes lit up when he said that let him know that that was exactly what she wanted to hear but didn't expect to. She leans up and claims his lips with hers again and they fall to the bed and don't come up for air again for the next hour.

* * *

Clary lay naked in Jace's arms as he aimlessly traces patterns into her arm. Her head is pillowed on his left shoulder as he reaches across his body and his fingers skim up and down her exposed arm. "What are we going to do?" Clary asks him after a few minutes of contented silence.

Jace takes a deep breath in and then out of his nose before he answers. "I have no idea."

"My father isn't going to like this one bit." Clary says nervously. "He already told me that he wanted to meet the man I've been seeing and meet him soon. He doesn't like not knowing who I am associating with. He worries about me and my safety a lot."

"I would imagine he would with you being his daughter." Jace says to her. "And some of that worrying about your safety probably comes from the fear of my family doing something to you."

"It is." she says lowly to him. She turns her head up to look at him and he looks over and down at her and his eyes meet with hers. "I don't want to lose us," she motions between them with her free hand, "...because of our families."

"Then we will just have to fight for each other." he says quietly and with fervor as his hand comes up to cup her face. She tilts her chin up and he leans down and kisses her as his arm squeezes her tighter to his body. She presses herself into him some more as their lips move together and when they finally break apart, her pulse has picked up a couple of notches.

She smiles lazily up at him as she says, "Keep kissing me like that and I will burn down the whole city to keep you."

He smiles widely and lets out a little chuckle as he looks up at the ceiling for a second and then back down at her. "If you keep looking at me like that and you do that thing that you did while we were...you know," he wags his eyebrows at her and she blushes and then chuckles once, "then I will burn down the whole fucking world and dig you out of the ashes if it means that we get to be together."

"Jace?" she says questioningly. "How did this...us...happen so fast? I...never thought that those stupid stories of how people fell in love so fast were true. But here I am, with you and I love you. It scares the hell out of me to say that but I do love you. It's crazy."

"I know what you mean." he says as he tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. "I mean, I was a man whore that didn't believe in love and then...I saw you that night in the restaurant and you literally took my breath away. Then you smiled and laughed and I was memorized. A complete goner after that moment."

His eyes sparkle as he talks and Clary gets butterflies in her stomach again. That feeling is completely unmatched by any other one that she has ever experienced in her life. "Well, I'm glad that you decided to follow me out of that restaurant and annoy me until I had a drink with you then woo me to the soft sounds of George Michael."

Jace throws his head back and laughs loudly. The motion makes his abs flex and roll under his skin and then there is desire pooling again deep down inside of her. He is just too damn sexy for her own good. And then those sexy surprise tattoos... "We should get dressed." she says as she pushes up. "I am sure Jordan is losing his mind right now."

Jace reaches out and pulls her back to him and she falls on top of him; their bare chests pushing together. "Just a little longer, babe." he says to her. She smiles widely at him calling her babe. She likes it...a lot. "Alright." she says and then lays down on top of him and rests her head under his chin. "I guess reality can wait a little longer."

Clary closes her eyes as his hands rest on her back and his fingers drag lazily up and down her bare back. Thoughts of telling her father start to run through her mind and she cringes internally at the thought of having that conversation. Hopefully, he won't try to kill Jace before she can convince him otherwise.

* * *

 **A/N:** Trust me when I say there is much more to this story than just finding out who each other are and trying to get their families to accept it. I have most of it planned out already and it is going to be one hell of a roller coaster ride for our two favorite love birds.

And on a personal note, the line about Jace and Clary telling each other they love each other without saying it by him saying "I know. Me too." is something I pulled from my personal life. I was trying to tell my boyfriend (now husband) after only dating for less than a month that I loved him but I couldn't get the words out because I was afraid that it was too early and I didn't want to scare him away. He saw me struggling after a particularly passionate kiss trying to say it and he said "I know. Me too." as he cupped my face and then I cried like a baby. It is one of the best moments of my life that I still remember vividly almost fifteen years later. I knew I loved him on our third date, a week after we started dating and after talking on the phone every night after school because I was in high school and he was in college. So don't write me and tell me that you can't fall in love that fast because I have experienced it first hand.

Till next time!


	7. Chapter 7

**To answer a question from one of the guest reviewers, I am thirty-one. I know. I'm old as dirt compared to a lot of the other writers on here. In fact, my favorite time to write is after I have a 'had a few' when my kids are in bed. I am a lot more relaxed then and words just seem to fall out of me. It's better than drunk texting or drunk posting to my social media sites. I may or may not have done that a few times... Lol!**

* * *

The blaring of a phone that isn't hers wakes Clary up. She opens her eyes to see that she has fallen asleep while still laying on top of Jace. The way he groans as he places one hand on her back to hold her to his chest and rolls with her to reach for his phone lets her know that he had fallen asleep too. She tilts her head up to see Jace slide his finger over the screen of his phone and answer it. "Hello." Jace says with a gruff voice. Clary lowers her head back onto his chest and presses her ear to his chest.

"Where are you Jace?" says Stephen and Jace looks over at the clock beside his bed. It's four o'clock and he was supposed to be back at his father's house at three forty-five and he is never late. He closes his eyes and runs a hand down his face roughly. "Sorry Dad. I fell asleep." he tells him and Clary stiffens just a little on top of him when he says dad. He brings one of his hands back to her bare back and starts to rub it. The gesture instantly makes her relax more into him. "Do you still need me?" he asks him.

"Yes. Alec is here with the papers to buy Starkweather's store so we can move more product. We also still need to talk about you slacking off this past week. You did well at the meeting but there are still things to discuss." Stephen says on the other end of the line.

Jace looks down at Clary's red hair that is spread beautifully over his chest and smiles at the sight. "Alright Dad." He says after a few silent seconds. "I'll be there as soon as I can." Jace hangs up the phone as Clary looks up to him and props her chin up on his chest.

"You have to go somewhere?" she asks as he runs his fingers through her hair making her eyes close with contentment.

"I have to go sign some papers to buy a place from a guy who owes us too much money." Jace tells her. She smiles and chuckles a little which makes him smile because he knows that she understands why he would be buying a store from someone who owes them money. That is a way for the owner to get his debt forgiven. They buy his store so they can smuggle 'products' in the store shipments while Starkweather still runs the store and would take the fall if he were ever caught with the illegal products. Jace would have plausible deniability if he weren't involved in the everyday running of the store and would blame everything on Starkweather if things were to go badly. That is a pretty common occurrence in the world of organized crime.

"But I don't want you to go." she says with a pout as her eyes open back up and she looks at him.

"Then stay here." Jace tells her. "I shouldn't be too long and knowing that you are hear waiting for me is an incredible incentive to hurry back."

"Really?" Clary says surprised. "You wouldn't mind? You trust me?" She sort of expected him to not trust her because of who her dad is.

"Of course I trust you." Jace says as his hands come up to cup her face. "I told you that I love you and that I don't care that your name is Morgenstern. Yes, things will be difficult with our families but that does't mean that it has to be difficult for us. I don't want anything to change between us and I will fight for it to stay that way. I refuse to let 'us' slip out of my fingers when I just got it."

She smiles lovingly up at him and then pushes up as he dips his head down slightly and she kisses him in a way that lets him know that she loves him. He can feel the love radiating out of her lips as they move against his softly and slowly.

After a few seconds, Clary pulls back and smiles up at her man. "I'll fight for us too." she replies simply yet with fervor in her soft voice. "So why don't you hurry up and leave so you can come back to me sooner."

Jace smiles widely down at her and then pulls her back for one more kiss before she rolls off of him. When she hits the bed next to him, she tosses the thin sheet that was covering her off to the side as Jace is getting out of bed. When he looks back at her, she smiles seductively up at him and his eyes widen with desire as he groans out a frustrated sound. "You need to stop that." Jace says lowly and Clary giggles as she pulls the sheet back over to cover her naked self up. "Just making sure you know what you need to hurry back to." she says innocently while her eyes suggest that she is anything but.

He narrows his eyes at her as he reaches into his closet blindly, his hand easily finding a pair of jeans that are hanging just inside the closet door, and he pulls them off the hanger and slips them on. "No underwear?" Clary asks.

"Nope. Less things to take off when I get back." he says and is beyond thrilled to see a slight blush creep up and into her cheeks at the remark.

"Touche." she says with an amused smile as he steps into the closet and pulls on a blue button up shirt. He rolls the sleeves up and runs his hand through his hair a few times to smooth down his sex hair before sliding on his shoes. He walks back over to his bed where Clary is watching him and she smiles as he approaches. He leans back onto the bed and she wraps her arms around his neck. "When I see you laying here in my bed...it really makes me think that pissing off my dad might be the more desirable option in this moment." Jace tells her.

She smiles widely and lets out a breathy chuckle as her eyes sparkle while looking into his. "Don't worry." she says softly to him. "I'll be here when you get back and we can pick up where we left off."

Jace groans low in his throat and pulls her into him and kisses her passionately. The world begins to spin for Clary as his lips are insistent against hers; holding promises of what is to come later tonight. Her tongue pushes into his mouth and she can't help but let out a tiny moan into his mouth when he bites down lightly on her bottom lip. Her arms involuntarily tighten around his neck, holding him tighter to her. "Okay. I change my mind. I don't want you to go." she says sexily when he finally pulls back.

He smiles down at her mischievously and smirks. He is clearly happy with himself that he was able to have that affect on her. "Trust me. I won't be long." he promises her. With one last kiss, he stands back up and walks around the bed and out of the room.

Clary hears the door to his penthouse shut and rolls over in his bed with a smile still on her face. She lets out a dry and humorless laugh when she thinks about irony of the situation that she has found herself in. She always wanted that type of romance that completely sweeps you off of your feet and leaves the world spinning around you and makes you forget what life was like before him. The kind of romance that her parents had.

Since the first moment she saw Jace and when he followed her outside and asked her to have a drink with him, she didn't see anyone else. He made her completely forget about every trouble that she had. She didn't even think about Sebastian until her mother brought him up when she got home that night. Jace has given her everything she ever wanted in a relationship. The attraction and the passion that balances perfectly with the intellectual stimulation that he gives her. He is able to keep up with her quick wit and handle her with ease where Sebastian would usually crumble under her intense gaze and personality. He isn't afraid to call her out and makes her laugh and relax with one look or touch.

And then she finds out he is a Herondale. The world is cruel bitch to give her everything she ever wanted with a backhanded slap to go along with it.

She rolls back over just now remembering Jordan. Jace told her that Jordan is why he told her today. He is probably pacing a hole in the floor wherever he is. She sits up and throws her legs over the edge of the bed and looks around. There by her feet is Jace's white button up shirt that he was wearing earlier. Clary picks it up and brings it to her nose and inhales deeply. It smells just like him. She then slips her arms into it and buttons it up after rolling the long sleeves up and trails back out of his bedroom. She vaguely remembers dropping her purse on one of his couches as she made her way over the wall of windows and goes in search for it.

The view is just as incredible as the first time she saw it and has to tear her eyes away from it again so she can focus on finding her phone. She spots it on one of the white cloth couches and grabs it and pulls out her phone. When the screen lights up, she can see that Jordan has texted her once. She opens up the text and it reads, "Hey, Clary. Just checking in on you. Call me when you get a chance. Maia said that she hasn't seen you today and neither have I."

She can hear Jordan's worried tone in the words he texted and she suddenly feels bad for doing that to him. When she left her parents house this afternoon, she told her mom that she was going to Maia's and Maia probably never knew that she had been at their place because she was at school. In fact, no one knows where she is right now. She sighs heavily and quickly dials Jordan. It barely gets through the first ring when Jordan picks up sounding slightly frantic. "Clary." he says worriedly.

"I'm fine Jordan." she tells him before he has a heart attack. "I'm with Jace."

"Oh...uh." he says sounding very unsure and nervous. "Okay. Where are you exactly? I should do my job and be with you. I can bring Maia and make it look like a coincidence and that we just happen to run into you."

She smiles at his extremely worried sounding voice. She knows that he genuinely cares for her and is concerned for her safety. He also isn't sure if she knows who Jace really is and is trying to tip toe around the subject. "Everything is okay, Jordan. He told me." Clary says calmly into the phone.

"Oh fucking hell." Jordan says exasperatedly. "Thank God he told you! I _did not_ want to have to be the one to tell your father."

Clary can't help but throw her head back and laugh loudly at that. "Yeah. I wouldn't want to tell him if I were you either." she says after the laughing dies down.

"You sound like you are in a good mood." Jordan remarks when the line goes quiet. His voice is skeptical if not a little incredulous when he says that.

Clary huffs out a long breath before she responds. "It was one hell of a shock." she admits as she sits down on the couch. "But after talking with him and seeing his reaction to finding out who I was, I believe that he had no idea just like I didn't. He looks absolutely nothing like his father and you know how my dad has been sheltering me all of my life. He has mostly kept me out of the public eye and away from his business until this past couple of years. I had no idea what Stephen's son looked like just like he had no idea what I looked like."

She hears Jordan sigh heavily on the other end of the line and she can just see him running a hand through his hair like he does every time he is stressed out. "What are the two of you going to do?" he asks.

"I know it sounds crazy but, we are going to stay together." she admits to him. "I am in love with him, Jordan, and he loves me. He told me and...I can just see it in his eyes. I know you have seen it when I talk about him and I am sure that Maia has told you every thing that I have told her. I'm not saying that it is going to be easy but I think that it will be worth it because I don't want to give up on us so easily."

"Just be prepared for the worst." Jordan says flatly to her. "Because your father is going to try and kill him."

Clary closes her eyes as she hears those words knowing that they are true. "I know." she says seriously as the gravity of the situation starts to fully sink in.

* * *

He swings open the door to his parent's penthouse with a huge smile on his face. "Alright." he says loudly as he claps his hands together and turns into his father's office just off of the kitchen. "Where are those papers?" He looks up to see Alec looking inquisitively at him while his father glares slightly at him.

"Why do you seem so happy?" Alec asks with a worried and curious look on his face. "Did you kill someone? Go ahead and tell me if you did so I can know what kind of a day I am going to have tomorrow."

Jace looks over to his best friend who looks incredibly worried that he actually did kill someone and he can't help but laugh at him. "No. I didn't kill anyone." Jace tells him and he visibly relaxes. "I just have an incredibly beautiful and sexy woman waiting in my bed for me."

Stephen rolls his eyes while Alec's tighten a little in annoyance before surprise flits across his features. "You let a woman stay in your apartment?" Alec asks with shock laced into his voice.

"Yes. Clary." Jace replies with a smile. "You know. The one I have been telling you about. The one I have been spending all my time with for the past week."

"The one you cancelled all of our appointments and lunches and dinners to see." Alec says a little bitterly. A slight scowl appears on his face and Jace walks over to him and tosses an arm around his shoulders.

"Don't worry, Alec." Jace says with a playful smile. "I'll take you on a fancy date to make up for it. I might even buy you flowers." He then lets out a tiny laugh and Alec seems to relax a little as he looks over at him. "I like tulips." Alec replies with a half smile and Jace lets out a small laugh. "Duly noted." he tells Alec as he lets him go and takes the seat next to him; across the desk from his father.

"You seem to really care about Clary." his father tells him. "You have never let a woman stay in your apartment much less spent as much time with one as much as you have with her. It's almost as if the impossible has happened. It's almost like you have..."

Jace interrupts his father then. "...like I've fallen in love with her?" he finishes his father's sentence and is satisfied when his father furrows his brows in confusion as Jace continues to smile. If his father were to ever say he was in love with someone or would fall in love with someone just two weeks ago, he would have scoffed and laughed in his face. The fact that he is making eye contact with his father and smiling at him now says everything that he needs to know.

"Oh. My. God." his father says as he leans heavily back into his large leather chair. "You are. You're in love with her." he says accusingly.

Alec's head snaps over to Jace and sees that he has a radiant smile on his face as he looks at his father. "What can I say, Dad?" Jace says with ease. "I don't know how it happened, but I can't really deny it, nor do I want to. I, Jace Herondale, infamous womanizer, has fallen in love."

"Holy hell." Stephen says with a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I never thought I would live to see the day."

"How the hell could you love her?" Alec says sounding incredulous. "You barely know her. You only met her last week."

Jace looks over to him, still unable to wipe the smile off of his face. "Like I said, I don't know how it happened. She came out of nowhere and changed everything. I know it was fast but...I guess the saying is true. That when you find 'the one', you just...know."

Alec scoffs a little and looks away with a roll of his eyes. "Sure, Jace." he says as he sits back in his seat. "You'll get bored with her after a month and move on like you did with that Aline girl."

"That's because I didn't love Aline." Jace tells him. "She was just a really good lay. Clary is different. I love her _AND_ she is a good lay."

Alec rolls his eyes again in disbelief. "Whatever you say." he says dryly causing Jace to roll his eyes in response.

"I know. It's hard to believe." he replies as he looks over to his dad. He is full out smiling at him now and is tapping his pen on his leg.

"Your mom is going to be so happy to hear this." Stephen says to him. "I am sure she will start planning a nursery the moment you tell her."

"Whoa, whoa!" Jace says as he holds his hands up. "Slow down there." he says as the name Morgenstern flashes behind his eyes. "I am _not_ ready for that." he says with a serious tone. "We have to get her father to approve before we can move any further. And then we have to get you to approve." Jace looks up to his father to gauge his reaction to what he just said.

"Why would you have to get my approval?" he says confused. "If she has managed to tame you and nail you down, she's good in my book."

Jace looks away as he raises his eyebrows knowingly. "I might hold you to your word on that one." he remarks causing both Alec and his father look to him questioningly. "Let's get this over with." Jace says as he leans forward and picks up a pen off of his father's desk in an attempt to change the subject before either of them can ask him anymore questions. "Where do I sign?"

Alec seems hesitant to let the conversation go but leans forward anyway and points to a spot in the middle of the stack of papers. "Initial here and here." he says as his finger moves across the paper. When he gets done with his initials, Alec flips to the next one and says, "Sign your full name here." and Jace signs along the line that he pointed to.

"Is that it?" Jace asks as he sets the pen down.

His father looks at him and shakes his head a little in disbelief slightly as he says, "I guess our conversation can wait since I see that you won't be of much use to me in your current state of mind."

"Thanks, Dad." Jace says with a smile as he stands up. "Don't call me tonight. I'll be _very_ busy." he says in a mock serious tone and then laughs once before he turns and leaves his father's office.

When Jace finally gets back to his penthouse, he opens his door to find Clary wearing his button up shirt from earlier and laying on her stomach on one of the couches while swinging her feet in the air. The top part of her body is propped up and he can see her looking up and then back down multiple times. As he steps further into the room, he can see that she has found a pencil and a pad of lined paper that he keeps in one of the drawers in his kitchen and is sketching. She is so deep in concentration that she hasn't even looked up to the sound of him opening and shutting the door.

He sets his keys on the table that is by the door and smiles as he walks silently closer to her. The sight of her there on his couch and in his clothes sends a thrill through him. If any woman before her had put on his shirt and gone through his things, he would have blown his lid and kicked her out immediately. But the sight of Clary making herself at home in his clothes did nothing but make him feel utter happiness and contentment.

It was the strangest thing to have his life flipped completely upside down in such a short time. He was perfectly happy with the way his life was going. But that was only because he hadn't met her. He was an idiot to think that to love someone and let them love you would only be another way for you to be destoyed. In his line of work, if your enemies couldn't get to you, they went after the ones you love and he always said that no one would be able to get to him that way. But now, looking at her beautiful red hair tumbling down her back and over his shirt, he knew that he could never go back. He would take on the whole fucking world to keep her by his side and keep her safe.

Clary seems to feel his gaze and turns and looks over her shoulder at him and smiles warmly at him. "Why are you looking at me like that?" she asks as a slight blush creeps up her face.

"Like what?" Jace asks confused.

"Like I am some beautiful painting that you can't take your eyes off of." she responds as she rolls onto her side and presses her back against the back of the couch.

Jace's lips then curve up on one side as he closes the distance between them while his eyes hold hers and crouches down on the floor in front of her face. One of his hands then raises up as Clary's eyes bore into his with such intensity that his heart starts to beat unevenly under his ribs. His fingers ghost down the length of her face and he can feel the warmth from her blushing under his touch as he leans in close to her and says lowly, "You are way more beautiful than any painting in the entire world. Only God himself could create something as beautiful as you."

He watches as she then blushes even more, her face turning a wonderful shade of rosy pink as her lips spread upwards and into a loving smile. "Jace." she says sounding breathless. He takes the opportunity then to lean just a little more into her and claim her mouth with his. Her soft lips move perfectly against his as he hears her drop the pencil she had been holding to the floor and wrap her arms around his neck. Her fingers find his hair as his hands move under her and then he is lifting her up and into his arms.

She pulls back and lets out a small startled breath before leaning back in and opening her mouth to let him slip his tongue in. He doesn't need to look where he is going for him to easily find his bedroom and carry her over to the bed. One of her hands slips down and into the neck of his shirt and splays flat against the skin of his back softly before she lets out a tiny little moan when he clenches her tighter to his body. For some reason, he just can't get her close enough to him.

He lifts one leg up and places that knee onto the bed and then the other. He then lays her gently onto his bed and moves to hover over her. When he pulls back to look at her, her lips are bright pink from their kissing and her eyes are an even brighter green than they were just a moment ago. The color combination of her eyes, lips, hair, and milky skin literally take his breath away. He tries to suck in a small breath but it gets hung up in his throat. "You are so incredibly, stunningly beautiful." he whispers to her.

"God, I love you." she responds as the hand that isn't in his shirt and on his back moves to push some of his hair out of his face. His heart pounds in his chest hard yet fast and slow at the same time as a smile pulls up his lips. "And you're really pretty too." she tacks on after a few seconds with a smile and his smile gets wider. His eyes crinkle almost completely shut as he lets out a few laughs and then he is diving back into her for a blindingly passionate kiss.

She lets out a shocked noise into his mouth at the intensity of it and the sound does unspeakable things to his body. He moves one of his hands down to her leg and he hooks his fingers around the back of her knee and then is pulling her leg up to wrap around him. When she does, he slides his hand up her thigh and when he gets to her hip and discovers that she isn't wearing anything else, his fingers clench involuntarily against her skin. This woman is going to be the death of him if he doesn't get to have her again.

He stops himself then, pulling his mouth from hers and resting his forehead in the crook of her neck, not knowing if she wanted to have sex again. The last thing he wanted her to think was that he only wanted her for sex.

As if she knew what was going through his mind, her hands went to either side of his face and pulled it up until he was looking her in the eyes. "Make love to me again, Jace." she says seductively to him. He certainly didn't need to be told twice. He dove back into another kiss with renewed fervor and let out a gutteral noise out of his throat that he didn't know he was capable of making. He then spent the next hour letting her know just how he felt through every caress of his fingers and every soft kiss that he covered her body with. It was the most amazing experience of his life and he never wanted it to end.

When they finally left his room again, it was late and the sun had dipped below the horizon. Max had shown up at some point and texted him that he was standing guard outside of his door. Clary ordered some Chinese food that Max went down and got and then brought back up. Jace reached out of his door through a tiny crack, wearing just a pair of sweatpants with Clary's arms wrapped around his torso, and took the food from him before Max could see that she was just wearing one of his t-shirts that landed just below her ass cheeks. The sight of her like that was reserved solely for him and him alone.

The moment the door is shut, Clary plucks the bag of food out of his hands and the hurries over to the couch that faces the large television along one of the walls. She sets the food down on the coffee table in front of it and then begins to sort out all of the containers. Jace is once again struck by the sight of her making herself completely at home here. He is beginning to think that it may be one of his favorite sights. His most favorite sight being Clary on his bed...never mind. He needs to get those thoughts out of his head and eat his dinner.

After they eat, Clary picks out a chick flick on Netflix that he would have _never_ watched before, and turns it on then sidles into his side after he throws his arm over her shoulders. About an hour into the movie, he notices that she hasn't moved in a long while and when he dips his head down to look at her, he sees that she has fallen asleep. Afraid to wake her up when she was looking so peaceful, he put his legs up on top of the coffee table and let his head fall back onto the back of the couch where he then drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The smell of breakfast cooking wakes Clary up. She opens her eyes and sees that she is in Jace's bed and is still wearing his t-shirt. She can't help the smile that spreads across her face. The fact that she is waking up in his bed after spending the night with him and now he is cooking her breakfast is one of the best feelings in the world. As she rolls over in the bed, her face runs into something that crinkles and is cold. She lifts her head up to see that Jace has left her a note that says _'I'm making us breakfast. If you come out just wearing only my t-shirt again, I won't be responsible for what I might do to you. It took everything I had to keep my hands off of you this morning when I woke up and saw you laying there with it riding up over your hips. Dress responsibly. I love you.'_

She laughs and the smile that was already on her face widens immensely at the words on the note, especially the 'I love you' part. That was hands down her favorite part. Clary kicks the covers off of her lower half and rolls out of bed. She pads over to the bathroom and digs a small brush out of one of the drawers and runs it through her tangled hair. When she looks up into the mirror above the sink, she is surprised to see that her features have changed.

Her eyes seem to be a little brighter green than they usually are while her eyes are crinkled slightly from the smile that she can't get to go away. Her skin is more flushed and pink than usual and something about the way she is standing is more confident yet soft at the same time. She looks absolutely beautiful, even to her own eyes, and it is all because of Jace.

This feeling that she has right now is what she has been looking for and waiting for. It's why she broke up with Sebastian when he was so perfect for her in every way. He fit in perfectly with her family and life and her father loved him. But there was always this feeling missing with him. The feeling of excitement and the thrill from being completely in love and knowing that your life was irrevocably changed for the better because he was in it. Knowing that you would be unable to function if he were taken away from you. It was so scary and so wonderfully exciting at the same time. But she knew one thing for sure and that was that Jace is who she was holding out for.

With that thought, she left the bathroom and walked out of his bedroom, still with only his t-shirt on, and over to his kitchen. He spots her almost immediately the moment she comes around the corner and a wide eye crinkling smile breaks out on his face. His eyes then dart down to what she is wearing and he groans as he narrows his eyes at her while she walks over to him.

Clary's hands reach out to him and she hooks her fingers into the waistband of his sweatpants and pulls him away from the stove. She leans back against the counter next to the bacon he is cooking and slides her hands up his perfect abdomen and hooks her hands together behind his neck as his arms wrap around her waist. "I told you I could't be held responsible for my actions if you came out in just my t-shirt again." Jace says lowly to her with his voice full of a dark and sexy promise.

Clary pushes herself onto the tips of her toes and tilts her chin up and presses her lips against his. Once, twice, three times before she pulls away. "Maybe that was my plan all along." she whispers to him and is satisfied as his eyes widen just a tiny fraction before darkening a couple of shades while his arms pull her even tighter against him. "You need to stop talking like that if you have any hope of eating this delicious breakfast I've made us." he tells her as he dips his head down and kisses her once more.

When he pulls back, they both turn their heads to the opposite counter when her phone that is plugged into a charger there, vibrates and rattles against the marble counter. "Your phone has been doing that all morning." Jace tells her seriously.

She groans and lets her head fall forward and onto his chest for a moment before kissing him again and then slipping out of his arms. Jace goes back to cooking the bacon while Clary grabs her phone and unplugs it from the wall. The moment her screen lights up, she sees the ten missed calls and the eighteen text messages. Her eyes widen a little as she unlocks her screen and pulls them up. The moment she sees who they are all from, her posture stiffens and a lump forms in her throat.

They are all from her father. Every single one of them.

She opens the first text to see that is says, _"Where are you? We came home to find you not here. Your mother said that you told her you were going to Maia's and your aren't there."_

"Shit." she mutters as she clicks on the most recent one. _"I am giving you five minutes to respond or I am turning this city upside down till I find you. This isn't funny any more."_

She huffs out a long breath and walks out of the kitchen. Jace looks after her seeing how tense she looks and furrows his brows in worry at the sight. As soon as she is out of earshot of Jace, she dials her father and he picks up on the second ring. "Clarissa! Where the hell are you?"

"Sorry, Dad." she tells him apologetically. "My phone has been in another room than I have been in all night. I am just now seeing all of your calls and messages."

"You know I don't accept those kinds of excuses." Valentine says angrily.

"I know, I know." Clary says softly into the phone. "I'm sorry I worried you. Noodles." Years ago, her family came up with a word to let each other know that they were safe if they were for some reason separated. That word ended up being 'noodles' because no one says noodles on a regular basis in a normal everyday conversation. They also had a word for if they were in danger and and wanted to tell them without alerting whoever they were in danger from.

"Where are you?" he demands and Clary looks back over to the kitchen to see a shirtless Jace jump back from the stove and curse under his breath when he gets popped by the grease from the cooking bacon. She smiles softly and laughs lightly and says, "I'm at Jace's place. I stayed the night here."

The line goes quiet for a few beats before her father says anything else. "I want to meet him, Clarissa. I want to know who my daughter is with and I want to know by the end of the day." Valentine's voice is tight and full of authority and she knows that there is no way for her to say no to him. Now that he knows that she is in a relationship with someone, there is no way that he will let her out of his or his men's sight. He knows that she has been ditching her protection detail after she told him the other night and she was under strict orders to not leave the house yesterday because of the meeting and the fact that he had to borrow the men assigned to protect her. When Jace called her yesterday, she knew her father would be mad but hearing him now, she realized just how mad he was.

His voice was tight and scary calm at the same time. It was never good when it got like that. "But daddy," she started to say and was quickly cut off.

"Don't daddy me, Clarissa. It won't work this time." he says flatly to her. "I want him here for dinner tonight."

She pulls the phone away from her face and mutters "Shit." again before bringing it back up to her ear. "Okay. But you have to promise me something. And I want your word on this." Her voice is now full of her own authority as she levels it at her father.

"What do you want me to promise?" Valentine asks her skeptically.

"That you won't try and kill him and you will hear me out." she says to him.

"Why would you ask me something like that, Clarissa?" he asks curiously. "What don't I know?"

"You need to give me your word before I bring him there. If not, I will stay where I am and I can promise you that you won't find me." Clary tells her father as her voice remains strong and unwavering.

The line goes quiet for ten, twenty, then thirty seconds before he finally replies. "Alright." he says sounding angry and slightly defeated. "I promise."

She lets out a breath that she didn't know she was holding and closes her eyes as relief washes over her. She is praying that he will keep his word when she walks into her house with him. "Thanks Daddy. I'll see you at seven. Love you." She hangs up the phone and tosses it onto the couch in front of her. She hears Jace pull the pan off of the stove top and then his bare feet as they softly hit the wood floor and come to a stop behind her.

"What's the matter, babe?" Jace asks as he dips his head down to the crook of her neck and places a soft kiss there as his arms snake around her waist. "My dad is super pissed because I ditched my security and disappeared while he was working yesterday. No one knows where I am."

Jace pulls her tighter to him and she relaxes a little and lets her head fall back onto his shoulder as her eyes close. "Does that mean you have to go?" he asks softly.

"No." she replies. "I told him I was with you and he demanded to meet you by the end of the day. I suspect that if I don't follow through, he will come looking for me or information about you and the first person he will go to is Jordan. I can't let that happen. Jordan is my friend."

"When you said that you told him that you were with me..." Jace starts to ask cautiously.

"I mean that I told him that I was in love with a guy named Jace but I didn't know his last name." Clary reassures him as she turns around in his arms. She rests her head on his chest under his chin and he turns his face so his cheek can rest on top of her head. "I am afraid that I have to tell him who you are."

"What do you think will happen when you do?" Jace asks curiously. He is pretty sure what will happen but he has to ask anyway.

"Well..." Clary hesitates for a second before continuing. "I made him promise me that he won't kill you and that he will hear me out." She lets out a nervous and humorless chuckle as he tightens his arms around her. "At least there is that."

"Maybe this will be a good thing." he tells her. "It could heal the bad blood between our families."

"Sure." Clary says sarcastically. "And I could be struck by lightning."

Jace takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as he lifts his head and looks out of the wall of windows with the view of the park. "We knew that this was going to be hard. And hey, if push comes to shove, I would not be against running away with you. Starting a new life away from this."

"We both know that that would never work." she says flatly to him. "If my father can find people in the witness protection program then he would be able to find us." She leans back and tips her head up to look at him. He looks down at her as one of his arms lets go and his fingers find her face. "You like what you do." she tells him. "It's exciting. And I would be lying if I said that I didn't like making grown men cower under my gaze and at the sight of me. Sure, I want to be an artist, but I also have to accept who I am and what my name is because that is never going to change. And it won't change for you either. We are our father's children."

As Jace looks down at her, he knows that what she is saying is true. That just means that they will have to stick together. If there is one crack in their devotion to each other, it will all come crumbling down. Maybe one day their parents will fully accept their relationship but, until that day, it will be one hell of an uphill battle. "Come on." he says as he dips his head and kisses her lips softly. "Let's eat some breakfast and then we can talk more after."

She smiles warmly up at him and reaches up on the tip of her toes again and kisses him again. This kiss a little different though. Her lips are pressed against his in desperation as her hands slide into his hair and push him into her harder. Her tongue drags across his lips and then he is opening his mouth to let her in. His arms squeeze her tighter as they kiss and just when he is about to take her back to the bedroom and leave breakfast to get cold, she pulls back. Jace is sure that his eyes are wild and lustful as he looks down at her and by the little smirk that pulls up her lips, she is fully aware of what she is doing to him.

"You're right." she says in a mock serious tone. "We should eat." She pulls herself out of his arms and he turns to watch her as she walks away. Even though his shirt is baggy on her, he can see the sway of her hips and he groans in frustration and then follows her into the kitchen. That woman is going to drive him insane if she keeps kissing him like that and then walking away.

* * *

"We just need to try to stick to the plan the best we can." Clary says as she cups Jace's face in his car. They are parked about a hundred yards from her house and Jordan is standing guard by the door. She had to call him and convince him to somehow get the rest of father's guards away from the front door or else Jace would never make it to the front steps. "Don't try to be a hero if things go to shit. Let me handle my father."

Jace leans in closer to her and kisses her one more time before pulling back and looking into her eyes. "I will...to the best of my ability." That is what he had been telling her and he could see that it was driving her insane. He couldn't promise that he wouldn't try to get in between her and her angry father to try and protect her.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" she says exasperatedly and he lets out a tiny dry laugh.

"You love it." he says back to her and she cracks one little smile for a split second before she says, "Loving you and loving your stubbornness are two totally different things. Now, are you ready?"

"As I will ever be." he replies and then she is opening her door and stepping out.

They walk, hand in hand, to where Jordan is waiting by the front door. He watches them as they approach and Clary looks everywhere but at him. She can't let herself see the look of worry on his face that is surely there as they get closer and closer. Only when they reach the top step does she look at him. He is standing right next to her and gives her a sympathetic look and a nod to show his support, even though he clearly doesn't think this is going to end well.

Clary looks away from him as her hand finds the door knob and she takes one last deep breath before pushing the door open with Jace's hand still locked in hers.

They step inside to find no one in sight. As she shuts the door behind her, Jace leans down and whispers, "I love you." and she quickly replies with "I love you too." as she can hear her mother's heels clicking softly on the marble floors.

But unfortunately, she isn't the first one to step into the foyer. Her father surprises her when he steps out of his home office only about ten feet away from her and Jace. He looks at her and gives her a tight smile and then his eyes go to Jace beside her. The next thing she sees is her father's face turning completely cold as all human emotion other than pure anger is wiped from his face.

He reaches behind himself and she instantly knows that he is going for the gun that he always keeps tucked into the waistband of his pants. She doesn't spare Jace one glance as her eyes are trained on her father. She instantly steps in front of her boyfriend and makes herself as big as she can as her arms spread out in a protective manor in front of him.

Everything then slows down and the world seems to move in slow motion. Jocelyn walks into the foyer then and her eyes widen when she sees her husband raising his gun in the direction of Clary. He levels the gun and aims it at Jace's head as Clary shouts "NO!" at Valentine and Jocelyn lunges for the gun in his outstretched hand. The next thing that Clary registers is the sound of a gunshot echoing throughout the grand foyer and her heart sinking into her stomach.


	8. Chapter 8

**Here is another chapter to take your mind off of the election. Heaven knows we are all tired of hearing about it.**

* * *

Clary closes her eyes tight as she waits for the stinging from the bullet that her father fired. Surely, it hit her because she is standing in front of Jace. When nothing happens after a few seconds, she opens her eyes and looks across the foyer at her father. Jocelyn has her hand on top of his that is holding the gun and is holding it with a firm grip as it points to the ground. Clary can see where the bullet hit the floor a few feet in front of her as her mother grabbed Valentine's hand and shoved it down. "You actually shot at me!" Clary says accusingly.

"What the _hell_ is going on?" Jocelyn says angrily to her husband. There is fire in her eyes as she levels her furious gaze at Valentine. "You almost shot our daughter!"

"I was trying to shoot _him!_ " Valentine yells angrily as he points at Jace with his free hand.

"Do you not see me in front of him?" Clary shouts at Valentine. "You almost sho _t me!_ "

"Well move out of the way and I won't miss the second time." her father says lowly through his gritted teeth.

"You will have to shoot me to get to him." Clary says dangerously as she can feel Jace's hands come up and rest on her shoulders. She can tell that he is trying to get her to move out of the way but she isn't going anywhere. Her standing in front of him is the only reason he is still alive.

"Why the hell would you bring him into my home?!" Valentine shouts at her. His face is beginning to turn a bright shade of red as Jocelyn's face lights up with understanding after studying Jace for a moment as she says in shock, "Jonathan Herondale."

Clary takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders and says, "Because this is who I have been seeing. The man that I told you I was in love with."

Jocelyn brings her hand up to her mouth in shock as Valentine's face goes from utter shock at her words to slowly growing angry again. _"What_ did you say?" he asks her lowly through his now clenched jaw.

"I _said_ ," Clary says as she takes three steps closer to her father as she locks eyes with him, "that he is the man that I love. I will not let you hurt him. You promised me. You gave me your word."

Valentine's eyes leave hers for a split second to look over her shoulder at Jace but she steps in his line of sight immediately and locks her eyes with his again. "You promised me." she says flatly again. She watches as the vein in her father's neck pulses hard and the muscles in his jaw flex while his eyes bore into hers. Both of them refusing to back down. From the corner of her eye, she sees Jocelyn's hand slowly rise and come to rest on Valentine's shoulder. "Val..." her mother's soft voice says. "Give me the gun."

His knuckles are white from the strangle hold he has on his gun and after a few seconds, Jocelyn is able to run her hand over his and slowly slide the gun out of his hand while Clary and Valentine continue staring at each other. "How could you?" Valentine asks, breaking the tense silence.

"I didn't know. Neither of us did." Clary tells him seriously. "It's partly your fault for keeping me hidden for most of my life. He didn't know what I looked like or that everyone called me Clary when my name is Seraphina. And he looks nothing like his father who is the only Herondale that I would recognize."

"She's right." Jocelyn says softly as she returns after taking his gun and putting it in another room. "They had no way of knowing."

"I don't believe it." Valentine says lowly to Clary as his eyes finally leave hers to look at Jace. "He is just using you to get to me."

"I would never..." Jace starts to say but is then cut of by Valentine's angry shouting. "Don't you _fucking_ speak to me in my own home after taking advantage of my daughter!"

"I am not some little girl." Clary says angrily to her father and his eyes move back to her. " _No one_ will ever take advantage of me. _I am a Morgenstern_. My father didn't raise me to be a fool. Jace no more took advantage of me than I did of him."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Valentine asks her.

"It means..." Clary takes a few steps back and keeps going four more until her back touches Jace's chest. "...that we met one night at a restaurant and hit it off. It means that neither of us knew who the other was. It was pure coincidence." She reaches back and grabs one of his arms and pulls it around her body. Valentine's face tightens immensely at the sight but she doesn't stop reaching for his other arm and pulling it around her as well. "I fell in love with him and he fell in love with me. That is all that happened. We can't take it back now and there is no way that I would ever want to."

"How did you find out?" Jocelyn asks when Valentine remains silent.

"Jordan." Clary says simply. "He's met Jordan twice and when Jordan saw him at the meeting yesterday, he gave him twenty-four hours to tell me before he went to you, Dad." Her father looks to her and she continues. "Jordan was really mad because I wouldn't tell him where I had gone. This isn't his fault. Jordan isn't just my security, he's my friend. You know that. He would never let anything happen to me."

"He should have told me immediately. The moment he realized who he was." Valentine says lowly through his tight jaw.

"And what would have happened?" Clary asks as she raises her brows questioningly at him. "Would you have tried to shoot him at the meeting and start another war that would probably get most, if not all, of your family killed or hurt? Jordan did the right thing by not telling you and you know it. You don't exactly think rationally when it comes to protecting your family. That is why you married mom. So she could be your voice of reason when anger clouded your vision."

"Clary..." her mother says. Her voice sounds like she is completely unsure of what she wants to say next. It looks like there are a million things running through her head. "It will never work for the two of you. There is too much bad blood." Her voice is softer this time and Clary's heart gives a tiny little lurch of hurt when she hears her mother say that.

"That can change." Clary says earnestly after she swallows past the lump in her throat. "We can heal from that. Jace and I can bring our families peace." She finally lets herself turn and look up at Jace for the first time since walking into her home. She refused to take her eyes off of her father for fear of what he might try and do. Jace looks down at her and he looks unbelievably tense. One of her hands moves up and cups one side of his face and he immediately relaxes. His golden eyes smolder for a second while looking into her green ones and then his lips are tipping up slightly into a small smile. "I will not stop seeing him." she says speaking to her father while looking at Jace. "I love him."

Jace's eyes sparkle when she says that and his lips open as he say lowly back to her, "I love you too." He then dips his mouth down and she reaches up on her toes and kisses him softly for a second before pulling back down and letting her heels touch the floor again. She tears her eyes away from Jace's face after a few seconds and sees her father looking angry and confused and shocked all at the same time. "You will have to accept it or I will leave and live with him."

"Over my dead body." Valentine says as he looks at Jace.

"No." Clary says flatly. "You know that I can and that I will if I have to. And if there is anyone that can keep you from getting to me, it's the Herondales and you know it. Unless you wanted to start another war which we all know that nobody wants to happen."

"Can I say something here?" Jace asks; his voice breaking the stare down between her and her father. Valentine's eyes dart up to Jace and Clary steps to the side a little and looks up at her boyfriend as one of his arms lets go of her and he raises it in a surrendering gesture. Valentine looks like he wants to say something but decides to keep his mouth closed and let Jace speak.

Seeing the opportunity that he has been given, he clears his throat and swallows roughly before he says, "I know what all of this looks like. Clary thought the same thing when I told her who I was. She was angry and shocked and hurt and she pushed me away. I was so confused by her reaction because I didn't know what her last name was." He glances down at Clary for a second and then looks back up to Valentine as he stands up just a little bit straighter. "When she finally told me, I was just as shocked as she was. But it was already too late by then. I had already fallen in love with her and wasn't willing to give her up. And I'm still not. I am in love with your daughter, Mr. Morgenstern." His voice is unwavering and full of passion when he says that and Clary's heart swells in her chest at those words. "I would never dream of hurting her or anyone she loves. That is why I came here completely unarmed."

Jace steps out from behind Clary fully and lifts his arms up as he grabs the bottom of his shirt and spins around showing him that he isn't carrying a gun. He then bends over and lifts up his pants legs to show that he doesn't have a gun strapped around his ankles either like he usually does. When he stands back up, Clary reaches out and grabs his hand and threads her fingers through his.

"Your mother and I need to speak with you in private, Clarissa." Valentine says to her as his eyes lock in on hers again. "Put the Herondale in the library." Valentine then walks a few steps along the wall and hits a button on a walkie talkie he picked up from a small table. "George. Get in here." Valentine says into the walkie. George is his oldest and most trusted security guys. "Yes sir." the man replies.

Clary takes a few steps over to the front door and swings it open. She sees Jordan looking incredibly tense and pressing his ear up to the door. "Jordan. Can you make sure that George doesn't kill Jace while I talk with my parents?"

Jordan takes a cautious step into the house and glances nervously over at Valentine who gives him a tight nod of approval. "Sure thing." Jordan says to her and then motions for Jace to follow him. Clary spins around and grabs Jace's face and pulls it down to hers. She gives him a quick yet bruising kiss and lets him go. He smiles warmly at her and then is following Jordan across the foyer and into the library as George appears; coming from the back door. "Make sure baby Herondale doesn't do anything stupid." Valentine tells him and George's face quickly become confused. "My daughter has brought home Jonathan Herondale and now I have to have a word with her." Valentine says and then looks to Clary. "Don't hurt him. Just make sure he stays put in the library."

George gives him a nod and a 'yes sir' and then is walking hurriedly to the library.

Valentine then turns on his heels and is walking back into his office with Jocelyn following closely behind. Clary takes a deep calming breath to ready herself for the coming talk before she follows after her parents. By the time she steps into the room, she can see her father facing away from the door as one hand is on his hip while the other is probably pinching the bridge of his nose from the way he is holding his hands. Jocelyn has sat down on one of the stuffed chairs and she looks exceptionally stressed out as she closes her eyes and breathes deeply a few times.

"What are you thinking, Clarissa?" Valentine says tiredly. His voice isn't as loud as it was out in the foyer and instead sounds distressed.

"Listen," she says as she takes a few steps to the middle of the office and stands beside her mother in the chair. "I didn't know who he was. All I knew was his name was Jace. Don't you remember the night before last when I told you about him? I told you that I had fallen in love with him and although you seemed to be surprised and a little hesitant, you were happy for me. You were glad that I had found something comparable to you and Mom's relationship. I am absolutely crazy about him. When we found out who we were, it felt like someone was trying to rip my heart out with a branding iron."

She takes a few steps closer to her dad even though he hasn't moved from the spot he is in and is still facing away from her. She can see just how tense he is and she softens her voice some more. "Then I thought that it didn't have to end in heartbreak for the both of us. We talked about it and realized that we didn't want to let each other go. He loves me, Dad. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at me and feel it in his kiss. He is everything I never knew I wanted and I have fallen _so hard_ for him that I feel like I can't even think straight when we are away from each other." She takes another hesitant step closer and places her hand softly on Valentine's back. "We know that it will more than likely be unbelievably hard but we want to work through all of it. We are going to fight for each other. I think that we can heal the bad blood between our families."

"You don't know anything, Clarissa." Valentine says as he turns to face her. "You weren't there."

Clary takes a deep breath and looks down at her shoes for a second. She has heard all of the stories from when her father was just a boy. He had come home from school to find his father drinking himself into oblivion because his wife and Valentine's older sister had been ambushed and killed by the Herondales for retaliation for Clary's grandfather killing Stephen's mother by accident in a shoot out. It was all one big huge fucking mess. Clary's grandfather then became abusive and had eventually drank himself to death by the time Valentine was nineteen. It really affected him and she didn't blame him for holding a grudge against the Herondales.

But that wasn't Jace's fault. Both Valentine and Stephen were little boys then. He can't hold what Jace's grandfather did against him forever. "I know I wasn't there." Clary says softly. "But you can't hold that against Jace or even Stephen. Neither of them did anything to our family. And then there is the line from the bible you used to say. 'No man shall be held responsible for his father's sins'."

"Don't quote the bible at me." he says after a small scoff.

"Why not?" Clary asks indignantly. "You quoted it to me all of my life. Can I not do it to you when I have a relevant point?"

She can see him grow a little angry at her words and she feels slightly satisfied. "Nothing you say is going to stop me from seeing him." Clary's voice is strong an unwavering when she says that. Valentine and her have gone into another stare down and before she gets too deep, she decides to break it. Her features soften and her shoulders relax a little out of the commanding position they were in. Her eyes look back up to meet Valentine's and her face takes on a pleading look. "But I don't want things to be that way." she says softly as she takes a step closer to him. "I want your blessing, daddy. He makes me so unbelievably happy. Don't you want that for me?"

She takes another step to him and reaches out and grabs one of his hands and holds it in between both of hers. "I know that if you give me and him a chance, we can help heal our families. I know that we will never hold hands and sing kumbaya but we can at least bring a more solid peace between the Morgensterns and the Herondales. And if things keep going well, I could marry him and then there would be a Morgenstern with the head of the Herondales and our children would take over when we were gone. This could be the perfect opportunity to bring everything together."

Valentine has always been a man of few words and deep contemplative study. He has been watching and listening to her with intense consideration. In this moment, she has never felt such weight from his eyes as she does with the look he is giving her now. She can see the two sides of him warring with each other. The father who wants his little princess to be happy and the mob boss who is angry and bitter and would assume kill a Herondale before he would trust one. And here is his daughter asking him to trust a Herondale with her life and her heart. It goes against everything that has been ingrained in him since he was a child.

"Please, Daddy." Clary says as a tear escapes her eyes. "I don't want to have to chose. Please don't make me. It would kill me."

"Val." Jocelyn says as she appears next to Clary but she doesn't dare take her eyes away from her father's. "At the very least, you should at least sleep on it. This isn't a decision that she expects you to take lightly and I am sure she knows that the idea of all of this will take some getting used to. Right, Clary?" she says pointedly and then looks purposefully over to Clary.

"Right, Mom." Clary responds, taking the cue from her mother. "All I am asking is that you give Jace and my relationship with him a chance. That's all."

She watches as Valentine's body relaxes when her mother reaches out and places her hand softly on one of his arms. "I will think about it but I am making no promises." he says suddenly, making Clary jump at the sound of his voice breaking the heavy silence in the room.

Clary's face lights up immediately and her eyes begin to twinkle with happiness and excitement. "Thank you so much, Daddy." she says as she leans forward and kisses him on his cheek.

"But there will be some rules for the time being." he adds on and her face falls just a little. "You are to take Jordan or Trevor with you everywhere you go and are to _always_ have a gun with you."

"You know I always have one." Clary says as she reaches down and touches the small three shot ladies pistol that is tucked into a tiny pocket that her father had sown into every pair of pants she owns. It is completely unnoticeable.

"I am to know where you are _at all times_ and you will not get Jordan to lie for you. If he does, I will slit his throat myself." Valentine says menacingly. Clary nods her head in understanding. "These are the rules for the time being while I think things over. I also can't promise that I will have an answer for you tommorrow or the next day."

"I understand." she says seriously letting her father know that she will do what he asks of her. It's the least she can do to ease his mind. "Thank you. I love you." She leans forward and kisses him on the cheek one more time and his eyes close at the gesture. When she pulls back, she can see just how much he is giving up by letting her walk out of his office and go back to Jace. Every inch of his body is radiating worry and stress. "I will take care of myself. I am my father's daughter." she tells him to help reassure him and he nods his head tightly.

She then lets go of her father's hand and turns to walk out of the office. When she gets to the door and steps through it, her mother appears beside her. Jocelyn steps into the foyer and shuts the office door and looks at Clary in the eyes. "Thanks for you help in there, Mom."

"I didn't do it for you." Jocelyn says as she levels her eyes at her. "I still think you should be with Sebastian." It takes Clary every ounce of self control she has to refrain from rolling her eyes. Now is not the time to do that. "I did it because I was afraid your father was going to have a heart attack with the stress you just put him under."

Clary feels a wave of guilt crash over her at that remark. She never thought about it that way. "I didn't do it on purpose." she says sheepishly to her mother.

"I would tell you to end it with Jace but knowing how stubborn you are, it would only drive you further into his arms." Jocelyn takes a calming breath before she continues. "Just make sure that he is worth it. Make sure that he is serious about you because your relationship with him could have the potential to start another war if it ended badly. It only takes one match to start a forest fire." Clary is about to say that he is worth it when her mother cuts her off. "And don't say that he is worth it now. You've only known him a week. Tell me he is worth it after you have thought about the potential repercussions from your actions."

Instead of saying that she already knows that he is worth it, she just purses her lips like she is in thought and gives her mother a tight nod. Jocelyn then steps away from her and then walks back into the office.

Clary turns and starts to walk to the library in search of Jace. When she rounds the corner, she spots him skimming his fingers along some of her mother's books and a smile breaks out across her face. Before she can reach him, he hears her footsteps and turns to look at her. When she gets a look at his face, she can see the worry etched into his features and raises her hands up to cup his face. "It's okay." she says softly to him. He then slowly wraps his arms around her waist and earns a growl and a dirty look from George whoi is in her peripheral vision. "I got him to think about it. It's the best that I could have expected from him."

"What does that mean?" Jace asks as he brings one of his hands from her waist to her face. His fingers trail lightly down her cheek and she leans into it a little.

"It means that he is going to try and accept it." she tells him as a small smile pulls up the corners of her mouth gently.

"How did you get him to do that?" he asks sounding completely surprised. "He tried to take a shot at me not even an hour ago."

She looks down from his eyes for a second and her hands come up to play with the collar of his shirt. "I told him that I was going to be with you and he couldn't stop me from loving you. I begged him to not make me choose between him and you. I don't know. I just..." she pauses and shrugs her shoulders, "told him the truth."

"It should be illegal to walk around with eyes as persuasive as yours." Jace says and Clary looks back up to him with a smile and a humorless laugh.

"Does that mean that they work on you?" she asks curiously and he looks at her like she is the most dangerous creature in the world. "Because I could think of a few things I want from you." she tells him and bats her long eye lashes at him.

He throws his head back in soft laughter for a second before looking back down at her with his eyes swimming with some deep emotion. "Baby, I will give you whatever you want. All you have to do is say the word."

Clary's hands then move up the short distance to his neck and her fingers dip into his hairline as she says seductively, "Kiss me."

Jace's eyes darken immediately and then his head is dipping down to hers. Their lips touch and Clary lets out a tiny relieved noise as Jace pulls her closer with one arm while his other hand cups her face gently. Her tongue pushes into his mouth for a second and then she is pulling back away from him. He lets out a small grunt of disapproval and she smiles at the noise as she lowers herself back down off of her toes.

Jace locks eyes with her as his tone becomes serious as he says, "My God, I love you so much." The way he said it left absolutely no doubt in her mind, or surely anyone else who would have heard, that what he said was true. The earnest look in his eyes as he looks down at her makes her heart take off into a sprint.

"I love you too, babe." she says as she slides her arms around him and rests her forehead on his chest. She closes her eyes tight as her hands slide down to rest on his stomach. "I don't want to lose you. Tell me again that we are going to be fine."

His hands make their way to her face again and he gently pulls it up to his. He waits for a few seconds until she opens her eyes and he traps her in his gaze. "We are going to be fine. I am not willing to let us go. I can't fathom a life without you in it anymore."

"Me either." she replies and he kisses her forehead before pulling her into his chest once more.

They stand there in each other's arms for a couple of minutes and ignore the two other men in the room. It is easy to do when there have always been people in the room watching you practically since birth.

"I'm hungry, babe." Clary says breaking the silence as she looks up to Jace. "I don't think eating here would be the best idea but I can smell that my mom made her famous meatballs and I really can't pass that up. Come with me and I'll make us some to take home."

Clary doesn't seem to catch that she said that she will make some to take home but Jace surely does. She grabs his hand and then is pulling him behind her as he smiles down at her. Hearing her say that makes him more excited than he thought he would ever be with the idea of someone moving into his place. The idea had always been repugnant to him. But with Clary...that sounded like heaven.

* * *

Valentine watches the wall of monitors hidden behind a panel in is office and finds Clary and Jace in the library. He clicks on that screen and turns on the sound and watches them. They happen to be standing right in front of the fireplace where his security camera is and can hear and see them perfectly. Jocelyn comes up beside him after coming back inside the office and holds one of his arms as her other hand runs up his neck and into his hair to massage his scalp. He suspects she is doing that to help him relax after the bomb Clary just dropped on him.

He is surprised when he sees the young Herondale's eyes light up at the sight of his daughter. He looked so tense and hard before she came into the room. They embrace and Clary's eyes soften when her eyes meet his. An easy smile that he has never seen before spreads across Clary's face. It looks so effortless for her to smile at Jace and the way she is looking at him is incredibly reminiscent of the way Jocelyn looks at him.

She relays to Jace what he just told her and they both smile at the news and then Jace cups her face and looks at her like she is the most important and precious thing in the entire universe and he has to look away when Clary reaches up and kisses him. His distrust in the Herondales feels like a part of him and now Clary is asking him to trust a Herondale not only with his only daughter's heart, but with her life. If he knows anything, it is that what the Herorndales did to his mother and his sister is what drove his father to become a drunk and beat him. Since he was a boy, his hatred for them hasn't waned and now he has one in his house, kissing his daughter.

The two lovers pull back from one another and Valentine looks back up to the monitor. Jace's eyes are swimming with emotion while he holds Clary's face delicately in his hands and he says something that takes him by surprise. "My God, I love you so much." Jace says fervently to his daughter. Jocelyn's small intake of breath lets him know that she is surprised either by what he said or the conviction with which he said it. Probably the latter, just like him.

Clary's eyes light up as she says, "I love you too, babe." and then they are holding each other. "What are we going to do, Jocelyn?" he asks her softly as he continues to watch the monitor and listen to their conversation.

"She's not exactly giving us much of a choice of what to do." Jocelyn replies softly. "For now, we have to accept it."

"Is she right? Could this be a way to bring lasting peace to our families?" he says to her. "The idea of it is so foreign to me. But maybe she is right. If they truly love each other and eventually marry, then our families would become one."

Jocelyn takes a long and deep breath through her nose and lets it out slowly as she thinks. "Let's just take it one day at a time for now." she answers. "You know that I want her to be with Sebastian..."

Valentine groans and rolls his eyes. "God knows you say it enough." he mutters under his breath earning a punch in his side from his wife. He lets out a little laugh as he looks over to see her smiling gently up at him.

"Sebastian is perfect for her." she says to him. "But she says she doesn't love him. Now, she has found someone she says she does love. It is certainly not someone either of us would have picked, but..." Jocelyn turns to look back at the monitor and gestures towards it. "...it is undeniable that they are in love when you look at them together. They look like us when we were that young."

"I have fought my whole life to protect my family from the Herondales." Valentine suddenly says earnestly. "And now Clary is in the arms of one. How do I trust him? How do I trust his father? What if he tries to shoot her like I did with Jace?"

"Then Jace will do what Clary did with him. He will stand in the way to protect her." Jocelyn tells him with surety, even though she is trying to convince herself of that.

"I pray that you are right." he says as he watches them walk out of the office while his heart drops to the floor in worry.

* * *

"Let's go. I'm starving." Clary says as she closes the lid on the tupperware container with her and Jace's dinner.

"Are you sure that your dad is okay with you leaving with me?" He asks her as she starts to lead them out of the house through the back door.

"Of course he isn't." Clary replies a little playfully. "But I probably need to give him some space for now."

He pulls her to a stop then. "Maybe you should stay here for the night." Jace offers even though he wants more than anything for her to go back to his place with her. "Give your father some peace of mind."

Clary groans because she knows that he is right and so she offers him a compromise. "I want to eat dinner with you. How about we go back to your place to eat and watch a movie and then I'll have Jordan bring me back here when we are done. You can pick me up in the morning. What time did you say that I am meeting your parents?"

"One o'clock. But we are having brunch with my best friend Alec and his boyfriend Magnus." Jace answers her.

Clary's eyebrows raise in surprise. "Alec Lightwood? As in Alexander Lightwood, son of your families crooked lawyer Robert Lightwood?"

"That's the one." They then both let out a small chuckle. "Just like your family's crooked lawyer Aldertree." Jace says.

"Alright. Let's go." Clary says as she pulls on their intertwined fingers. "The more time we are here, the less time I get to spend with you."

* * *

"He is worried about what I am going through." Valentine says sounding very surprised to his wife. "He wants her to stay here so I won't be worried about her."

"I must say, I am pretty surprised." Jocelyn remarks while her and her husband watch as Jace and Clary leave out of the house through the monitors. "The boy may actually have a heart unlike his grandfather."

"A trait he surely inherited from his mother." he adds on. "I am just glad that she will be here tonight. Although I can't say that I am too happy about her going to meet Stephen and his wife tomorrow. Maybe I should send some of my men with her."

"That is a horrible idea." Jocelyn tells him. "He will see it as a sign of aggression and things will go badly. Let her go by herself with just Jordan. She won't seem like a threat then."

"Fine. But I will have some of the cops on my payroll hanging around." Valentine concedes. "That is the least I am willing to do. I know she wants to take control of her own life but I am having a hard time letting her."

"Me too." Jocelyn says as she steps forward and wraps her arms around his waist. His arms come up and around her shoulders and when she lays her head on his chest, he noticeably relaxes. "But we can't make all of her decisions for. If we could, she would be engaged to Sebastian and locked up in her room with twenty four hour security standing guard outside her door for your peace of mind."

"How am I supposed to be okay with all of this?" he asks rhetorically of his wife. "I don't know how to let go of the pain that his family caused me. I hate him. I know he never did anything to me but I hate him anyway."

"I know." Jocelyn says softly. "I know."

"I love you." he tells his wife. "I feel like I don't say it enough."

"I love you too." she replies. "Let's hope that Jace loves Clary the same way that you love me because your love for me could crumble mountains with it's strength."


	9. Chapter 9

Jace walks Clary up the steps to the Morgenstern mansion after spending the evening together. He is really starting to regret suggesting that she come back to her parent's place now that he is here.

Clary stops at the top of the stairs and turns to face him. When he steps up onto the stoop with her, she brings her arms up to drape around his neck as his hands go around her waist. "Your idea for me to come back here and stay the night sucks." she says with a pout.

"I was just thinking the same thing." Jace tells her and then he dips his head down. Clary reaches up on the tips of her toes and presses her soft lips against his and they both sigh. She loves the way he kisses her. He always makes her feel like breakable china with his soft hands and soft lips. That is until things start to get heated between them. He lets her have it then. He grabs roughly at her and his mouth becomes urgent against hers because he knows that she is strong and she can handle it. She pulls back and he lets out a tiny groan of frustration that makes her smile.

"I should really go inside now." she says as she pulls his arms from around her waist.

"I really hate myself right now for suggesting that you come back here. What was I thinking?" Jace says as he purses his lips.

"You were thinking that you want my father to like you and not want to kill you the next time he sees you." she tells him as her hand comes up and smooths out the sour look on his face with her hand. "It was the right thing to do."

Jace grabs her wrist and hurriedly pulls her back to him. She giggles as her chest hits his and he wraps his arms tightly around her again. "I changed my mind." he says lowly as his mouth lowers to kiss her neck. "You should...," he kisses just under her ear, "get back in my car..." he kisses down her neck slowly as she closes her eyes and leans her head back to give him more access, "...and come home with me." When he gets to the base of her neck, he places a hot and open mouthed kiss there and her whole body shudders with the promise his lips just made against her skin. "Jace..." she says on a slow exhale of breath.

He grunts lightly as his lips skim back up her neck. When they get to her ear, his tongue barely trails along the length of it and then he whispers, "Clary." in that husky and sexy voice of his. She melts into him and starts to turn her head over to him so she can give him a hungry kiss when the front door flies open. There, on the other side of it, is his father's trusted guard, George. He levels his eyes dangerously at Jace and Clary closes hers and lets her head fall forward and onto Jace's chest as the mood is brokenly so suddenly and harshly.

Jace stands back up straight from where he was bent over and kissing her neck and his eyes become slightly threatening towards George because of the death stare he is giving him. Clary sees this and grabs Jace's face and pulls it back to look at her. When his eyes finally come to meet hers, she raises up and kisses him quickly and then says, "I love you. I'll see you in the morning."

Jace takes a deep breath and then brushes some of her hair out of her face. "I love you too. Call me." He bends down and kisses her one last time before he is walking back to his car.

When he is in it, Clary turns around and scowls at George. "Thanks a lot, George." she tells him sarcastically as she pushes by him and into the house. "I was just thinking that what that moment needed was a two hundred and fifty pound body guard to watch us make out."

"Just doing my job ma'am." George says as he shuts the door.

"No. You were just ruining a very hot and steamy moment with me and my boyfriend." she says back to him just as she reaches the stairs.

"Goodnight Miss. Morgenstern." George says and she can tell that he has a satisfied smile on his lips. He has never been a big fan of the Herondales either.

"Up yours." she says back to him and flips him off over her shoulder. George has never been her favorite guard of her father's. He is too much of a suck up.

* * *

The next morning, Clary wakes up in her plush bed and stretches like a cat. When she is done, she rolls over and grabs her phone off of her nightstand and smiles in anticipation of seeing the texts Jace surely sent if he has already woken up. Her smile instantly fades when she sees a text from Sebastian instead. She unlocks her phone and opens up the text. It reads, _"Hey. So, I heard you are seeing someone already. I'm not too sure what to think about that. I just hope that whoever he is treats you well. If not, I'll kick his ass. Just...take care of yourself."_

She sighs heavily with guilt and closes her eyes as she sets down the phone beside her. She is still surprised that he tried to propose. There was no indication that he had been wanting to marry her other than him telling her he loved her, which she still isn't sure that he really did. Especially with the way Jace looks at her. Sebastian never looked at her the way he does. Like she is the most precious and beautiful thing he has ever seen.

Clary starts to smile widely again as all of her thoughts return to Jace. She heaves herself out of bed and walks over to her attached bathroom. When she walks in and looks in the mirror, she can't stop the smile that pulls up her lips as she sees herself wearing one of Jace's t-shirts. She told him that he had to give up one of his shirts so she could fall asleep with the smell of him surrounding her. He couldn't resist letting her have the pick of his closet after she said that.

She picks up her phone and runs her fingers through her hair and pulls up her camera. She holds the phone high and looks up at it through her lashes as one of her hands bunches up the hem of his shirt and pulls it up to her hip to show all of one of her legs as she pokes it out sexily. She snaps a picture and then brings back the camera to check and make sure it is acceptable before she sends it to him. She looks absolutely hot with her tousled bed hair in Jace's t-shirt and her exposed leg. She brings up her messaging app and attaches the picture with a message of _"I'm so glad I took one of your t-shirts last night. I couldn't have slept without it."_ Clary then hits send and sets her phone down on the counter and walks over to the large glass shower and turns on the water for it to heat up.

A minute passes when her phone finally pings with a new message and she smiles widely as she runs over to see Jace's response. When she slides open the message, her heart sinks to her stomach. _"Since that isn't my shirt and I didn't see you last night, I am going to assume that text was meant for someone else. Your new guy perhaps?"_ Oh. My. God. She accidentally sent it to Sebastian. She never closed out their conversation after reading his text this morning and when she opened up her messaging app, it must have automatically opened up their conversation.

"Shit." Clary mutters out loud. She then receives another text from Sebastian and she cautiously opens it up. _"By the way, you look hot. Even if you are in some other guy's shirt."_

"Dammit, dammit, dammit." she swears lowly. She hurriedly types a text back to him. _"So, so, so sorry Sebastian."_ Clary brings one of her hands to her face and runs it roughly down it. She stands there for a minute, feeling like a horrible person, when a loud knocking on her bathroom door startles her. She jumps and lets out a tiny yelp before she hears her mother say, "Are you decent?" through the door.

"Yeah. Come in." Clary says and her mother steps in the room that is starting to fill with steam. "What time are you leaving?" Jocelyn asks.

"I think he is picking me up at 9:30. We are having brunch with his friend at ten."

"Well, don't expect to see your father this morning." Jocelyn tells her. "He is avoiding you. You should let him have his space."

"I will, Mom." Clary says tiredly. "I know how he works. He needs time to think and I am giving him that."

Jocelyn then seems to notice the large man's shirt she is wearing and eyes it for a moment. "Is that Jace's?" she asks as she point to it.

"Yeah. It is." Clary answers her a little defensively.

Jocelyn then brings her eyes up to meet her daughters which are exact replicas of her own and narrows them at her slightly. "Have you slept with him?" she suddenly asks. Clary is taken by complete surprise by her mother's very out of the blue question and folds her arms across her chest in a defensive stance. "That isn't any of your business." she tells her.

"I'll take that as a yes." her mother says as she studies Clary's face. "Was it before or after you found out who he was?"

Clary briefly thinks about completely denying it but her mother has always been able to read her like the back of her hand. Probably because she looked just like her mother and had most of her facial expressions. "After." Clary replies as she tips her chin up at her mother. "Why does it matter?"

"Because if he did it before, than that would mean he was taking advantage of you." Jocelyn says to her.

"No, it wouldn't have because he didn't know who I was." Clary says with a hint of anger in her voice. "We've already been over this."

Jocelyn raises her hands in a peace making gesture when she sees the temper that Valentine gave her start to slip out of her. "Okay. Okay." she says as she looks into her daughters upset gaze. Her eyes then pull away and looks over to the running shower. "You had better get in. Your brother will be here in thirty minutes and you will have to tell him about Jace. I and your father refuse to be the ones to do that."

As if Clary's morning couldn't get any worse. Now she has to tell her incredibly protective older brother that she is dating Jonathan Herondale. That is going to go over as well as a bull in a china shop would go. He is going to go ballistic. She just knows it.

* * *

"You're dating who?" her brother Jonathan asks as he shuts his parents fridge that he was raiding. He spins around and looks at her where she is standing on the opposite side of the large kitchen island that separates the two siblings.

"Um..." Clarys says as her brother's eyes bore into her. "It's Jace Herondale. As in Jonathan Herondale." She shrinks back away from him and waits for the shouting to start. His eyes are still trained in on her and when his mouth begins to open, she closes her eyes and turns her head away to wait for his loud and booming voice to yell profanities at her.

The sound she hears instead, is something that her in her wildest dreams, she could have never imagined. His roaring laughter starts to bounce off of the hard surfaces of the kitchen, amplifying the sound to a dull rumbling sound. Clary cracks one of her eyes open slowly thinking that he has surely slipped into some rage induced hysteria and looks across the room at him.

Her other eye immediately pops open when she sees his wide smile crinkling his eyes almost completely shut as he doubles over in laughter. "You..." He tries to say something else, but his laughter starts up again. Clary is shocked into silence and frozen still at the sight of her brother. "You...fell in love with a Herondale?!" he finally manages to ask through his belly laughs. All Clary can do nod her head as she is still too stunned to form words.

He immediately resumes his hysterical laughter as a tear rolls out of one of his eyes. He is actually laughing so hard he is crying. "Why are you laughing?" Clary finally asks him. "I thought you would be mad."

"I am sure that Mom and Dad are mad enough for me." he says through his wide smile as he finally stops laughing after taking a few deep breaths.

"They are, but...I thought you would want to kill him or something." she says still too shocked for more complex questions.

"I don't have to worry about that." Jonathan replies as he walks around the island and over to his sister. "I am sure Dad can handle that well enough."

"But..." Clary starts to say but is cut off by Jonathan. "You told me a few days ago that you had fallen in love with a guy, hard and fast, and that you didn't know each other's last names. You said that he said his last name usually scared people away and that's why he didn't want to tell you. As long as he is still treating you right and you are still in love with him, there isn't much I can do or would want to do. I want you to be happy, little sis." He ruffles her hair a little and Clary slaps his hand away. "Besides, if he hurts you, I am sure Dad will let me be the one to torture him."

"Jonathan!" Clary says in a chastising voice and he lets out a more sinister laugh than before. "But seriously," Jonathan says as he looks Clary in the eyes, "..if you ever feel the least bit scared or threatened by him, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call me and I will take it from there." His eyes hold a dark promise behind his words and all Clary can do is give him a quick nod and pull him into a quick hug. "Thanks Jon. I love you." she tells him.

Clary can practically feel his eyes rolling in his head as his arms come up around her to hug her back as he says, "Love you too." and then hurriedly lets go of her. He has never been much of a hugger.

Just as she is stepping away from Jonathan, the doorbell rings and Clary's hands instantly go to her hair. She pats down the lumps her brother put in her hair when he ruffled it and runs her fingers through it a couple of times as she hurries over to the door. But when she opens it, she is greeted by her guard Trevor. "Mr. Herondale is here." he tells her and she looks around him to see Jace standing outside of his car.

"This big one here says I can't come up to the door." Jace shouts and points to George.

Clary groans and rolls her eyes as she grabs her bag that she set by the door earlier and then hurries out of the front door with Trevor hot on her heels. "Don't worry." she tells Jace as she gets closer. "I'll fix that problem."

She walks over to George, who is a few feet away from Jace, and she places herself right in front of him. She clears her throat and he stops the death glare he is giving Jace to look down at her. "Is there something I can help you with, Miss?" he asks her.

This is when Clary Morgenstern, daughter of infamous crime boss Valentine Morgenstern takes over. "Did my father tell you to keep him from the front door?" she asks him as she narrows her eyes dangerously at him.

"No ma'am." he answers a little tightly.

"Then why wouldn't you let Mr. Herondale up to the door to retrieve me?" she asks as her voice becomes increasingly hard and cold.

"I was just thinking that..." he starts to say and then Clary quickly cuts him off.

"I'm sorry. Did you just say that you were thinking?" she asks him with an indignant tone. He swallows roughly and nods his head yes and then she takes another step even closer to him and stands up straight as her shoulders square with pure confidence and power. "Well my father doesn't pay you to think, now does he? He pays you to be his little body guard. Whenever Mr. Herondale is here, you will treat him with nothing but the same respect that you treat my family."

Her eyes pull into even tighter slits as her lips become tight with anger. Her voice drops a little lower and then she sees it. The fear that she can cause grown men to have. She is sure that he has no idea that he has started to lean away from her slowly in fear as she steps even closer to him to where only about a foot separates them. "Sometimes you people forget that you are absolutely replaceable. That I can't make you disappear. Don't let yourself get too big for your britches thinking that you have more power than you do...which is absolutely none, by the way. Do you understand what I am telling you or are you just too stupid to comprehend it?"

"Yes ma'am. I understand." George replies with a tight voice. He is clearly angry and embarrassed and that means that Clary has accomplished what she set out to do.

"Good boy." Clary says as she pats his chest a few times in a demeaning manor and then turns to face her boyfriend. When her eyes find his, she can see that they have darkened with a heavy look. Something about his gaze sends a shiver down her spine as she walks over to him. "Hey babe." she says when she reaches him. "I've missed you." Clary then reaches her arms up and puts them around Jace's neck as he continues to look at her with what she now recongnizes as hunger in his eyes.

"That was so fucking _hot._ " he says lowly to her as his eyes sparkle with lust. " _You_ are so fucking hot." he adds on.

"What?" she asks innocently and shrugs her shoulders.

Jace's arms then come around her waist and he pulls her too him tightly as his fingers dig lightly into her. "The way you handled him...was so fucking hot. I don't think I have ever been more turned on."

She lets out a tiny giggle as she tips her head up and kisses him quickly on his lips. "You haven't seen anything yet. That was just child's play."

"Oh...I can only imagine." Jace says lowly. "I have never seen a woman make a two hundred and fifty pound man cower away from her before. _My God_ , that was so unbelievably hot."

She bites her lip as his gaze gets impossibly heavier on her and she starts to feel a tightening in the pit of her stomach as images of the other night come back to her. "We should probably get going. I don't think my father or brother would appreciate me ripping your clothes off of you and taking you right here in the driveway."

"That's probably a good idea." Jace says as she feels something in between them. "I don't know how much longer I will be able to hold out if you don't pull yourself away from me."

Clary reaches up and gives Jace a bruising kiss that leaves him breathless when she pulls away and then turns and hops in the car, leaving Jace standing shell shocked from the kiss in the driveway.

Jace quickly gets in the car and the moment they take off, Clary looks over to him. "Does Alec know who I am?" she asks.

Jace doesn't take his eyes off of the road when he says, "Not exactly."

"Well then this should be a fun brunch." she replies with a slightly sarcastic tone. "At least we will be in public. That way his reaction will be somewhat contained."

"Alec's reactions are already pretty much contained." Jace says with a knowing tone. "He is a very reserved kind of guy."

"So the opposite of you?" Clary asks and he laughs quickly.

"Yeah. I guess so." he replies. "I never thought about it that way."

"Have you always know he was gay?" she asks as her hand comes to rest on his thigh.

"Yes and no." Jace says as he glances back over to Clary. "I suspected it for a long time because he would always do little things here and there. He actually kissed me once when we were kids. I was his first crush. His father is more on the traditional side though and I think he was afraid to tell him. When he finally did, he was a lot more accepting than he thought he would be. The only thing he really cared about was that he was going to be a lawyer because of his family's prestige in the judicial community. He wanted someone to carry on the Lightwood legacy. He told him that as long as he found someone to have a biological child with, then he was fine with him being gay."

"That's kind of a strange thing to request." Clary says as she thinks about it.

"Like I said," Jace says as he looks back over to her, "he wants someone to carry on his name and his 'legacy' as lawyers. Since Max, the youngest Lightwood, refuses to do that because he wants to be an archaeologist, the task falls to Alec."

"Well...I guess that it's good that he accepts him." she says as she looks back out of the window of his car. "It's just weird that he was more accepting of Alec's sexuality than of Max's choice of profession."

"I know. That's what everyone says." Jace says and then they are silent the rest of the way to Taki's.

When they pull up outside the nice restaurant and get out, Clary takes a second to adjust the deep purple blouse that she is wearing and the black skinny trousers that hug her curves perfectly. The ankle boot she is wearing top off the outfit perfectly and give her some height and a sort of bad-ass quality to her look. The moment they step into the restaurant, the host hurriedly says, "Welcome back, Mr. Herondale. Right this way." and then smiles widely as he starts to lead them to the back of the restaurant. He shows them to a table in the corner with a view of the whole restaurant and Jace slips him a tip through a sly move of his hand and then pulls Clary's chair out for her.

"I figured we would get here before Alec and Magnus." Jace says as he sits down next to her. "Alec says Magnus takes a while to get ready."

As if on cue, Clary looks up when she sees a flash of something sparkly. Her eyes hone in on a very vibrant looking man with slanted eyes like a cats while his hair is perfectly sculpted into a very fashionable cut. He is wearing plain black slacks but the shirt is a sequined blue color that reflects the light as he walks. "Oh my God." Jace says lowly to her. She glances over to him and sees a small smile on his lips. "He wasn't kidding." Jace adds on.

"What?" she asks hurriedly.

"He said that he was...more flamboyant than he was. I expected that he'd maybe have a blonde streak in his black hair or something like that." Jace replies quickly. "I just never pictured quiet and reserved Alec with someone like him."

He reaches the table then and dramatically holds out his hand towards Jace. They both stand up and smile at the flashy man. "I'm Magnus." he says as Jace takes his hand and shakes it. "And I am assuming that you are Jace since you are exactly as he described."

"And how was that?" Jace asks as he lets go of his hand.

"Like a golden statue of David." he answers and Clary can't help but let out a small chuckle which then brings her to the attention of him. "And you must be Jace's girl of the moment."

Clary purses her lips slightly but manages to keep the smile on her face as she holds out her hand to shake his. "She is my girlfriend and she is here to stay." Jace says with a slightly upset tone to his voice.

Magnus smiles over at him a little apologetically as he says, "I'm sorry. I just go off of what Alec tells me."

A man that was on the phone behind him steps from around him and gives a slightly nervous chuckle as he slips the phone he was talking on into his pocket. Clary barely even noticed him until he stepped around Magnus. But she guesses that is what happens when you are with someone who tends to take the spotlight. She is sure he is Alec. "I just told him that you were a womanizer and that you went through women like you changed underwear." Alec says a little shyly, never glancing in Clary's direction as he talked to Jace.

"That used to be me." Jace says with a look over to Clary. "Alec, I'd like you to meet Clary." Jace says with a smile and Alec reluctantly looks over to her. When his eyes land on her, he furrows his brows for a moment like he is sizing her up and then holds out his hand across the table to shake hers.

"It's nice to finally meet you Alec." Clary says brightly. "Jace has talked so much about you."

"Oh, he has?" he says sounding a little surprised as he lets go of her hand and looks brightly over to Jace.

"Of course I have." Jace says sounding a little defensive. "You're my best friend, Alec. You are one of the only people in the world I tell everything to and love. Of course I would have told her about you."

Clary is watching Alec closely and she is almost sure that a slight blush creeps up on his face when Jace says that. But she can't be absolutely sure.

"Let's sit and order." Jace says then and they all take their seats.

As Clary is looking over the menu, Alec keeps looking over his to look at her. His face looks like he is trying to figure something out and she gets a little annoyed with it. "Do I have something on my face?" she asks as she looks over to him.

Alec closes his menu and sets it down as the other two at the table look up from theirs. "It's just that I feel like I have seen you before." Alec says as his eyes bore into hers. "Do you hang around Bluebirds? It's that bar that women go to to meet rich men. I feel like I might have seen you there before."

"Alec." Magnus says very lowly in a chastising tone.

Clary then gives a very tiny humorless laugh as her eyes narrow at him. "Not exactly. I have plenty of my own money. I don't need a rich man."

"Hmmm." Alec says as he still studies her for a moment. "What about that go-go club? Were you there..."

"That's enough, Alec." Jace says to him warningly. He then turns his head to look at Clary as his hand comes to rest on her leg. "Alec can be a little protective of me." Jace tries to explain and Clary just nods and turns her attention back to Alec. If he wants to play this game with her, then she will take the bait.

"You are actually probably familiar with my mother. Everyone says I look just like her." Clary says as she leans forward on the table with a smirk on her lips.

"Well there goes our plan to tell him." Jace mutters as he sees the look on her face. He knows that he won't be able to stop her now.

"And who is your mother?" Alec asks with a small smile on his lips.

"Her name is Jocelyn. She is a painter." she tells him and he furrows his brows in thought. "But you might be more familiar with her last name and mine."

She pauses for a second and waits for him to ask, which he surely will. "And what is her last name and yours?"

"Jocelyn Morgenstern. You might have heard of her." Clary says with a sly smile on her lips.

She watches with satisfaction as his eyes get as wide as saucers and he stiffens in his seat as Magnus says sounding thoroughly amused, "I'll bet you did not see _that_ coming." in the direction of Alec who is now turning red.

His now angry eyes dart over to Jace who has now leaned back fully in his chair and is looking back at him with a resigned look on his face. "What the hell are you thinking?!" Alec says lowly through his clenched teeth. Clary sees Magnus then reach his hand under the table and move it to Alec's leg in an attempt to calm him. Alec just completely ignores the gesture and keeps glaring at Jace. "What happens if her father finds out?"

"He already knows." Jace says flatly and Alec's face goes from bright red with anger to surprise in record time. "We told him last night. He wasn't happy but he is thinking it over. And after this brunch, we are headed to my parents to tell them."

Alec studies the both of them for a few more tense seconds and then his face grows surprisingly amused. "You know that this will never work between the two of you." he says with a knowing tone.

"I don't need your negative assumptions also." Jace says tightly to him. "We are in love and are committed to bringing our families together to work this out. We won't give up on each other."

"This is absurd." Alec says as he smiles and leans back in his chair. "You two are delusional if you think you can make it work. Your relationship, or whatever you want to call it, has been doomed from the moment it started."

"That's enough Alec." Magnus says seriously looking over to his boyfriend. "You know that people have said the exact same thing about us."

Alec lets out an amused laugh as he scoffs in Clary's direction. "She's not even your type." he says with a wave of his hand. "You will never be able to trust her."

Clary takes a look over at Jace and sees that he is growing increasingly angry as his best friend keeps talking. "Fuck you." Jace then tells him through his own clenched teeth. Alec's amused face is instantly wiped away. He suddenly looks very concerned and serious as he registers just how angry Jace is. "I sure as hell don't need you telling me what a horrible idea you think we are. I guess I was sorely mistaken when I thought that you, for one, would understand and be supportive and not immediately dismiss us. Some friend you are." Jace then angrily stands up, pushing his chair back with a loud screech along the floor. He grabs Clary's hand and pulls her up as Alec tries to get Jace's attention.

"Jace." Alec says sounding worried. "Don't go." He then reaches out to try and grab Jace's arm and Jace quickly yanks it back to him.

"Let him go. He's too upset right now." Magnus says softly to Alec.

"It was nice to meet you Magnus." Jace says sternly and then is pulling Clary along behind him by their joined hands out of the restaurant.

By the time they get in the car, Jace is visibly stewing. "Babe. Let's just go back to your place." Clary says softly to him. She reaches across the small distance in the car and rests her hand on the back of his neck. Her fingers then slip into his hairline and she starts to massage his scalp. He takes a deep and calming breath as he relaxes a little under her touch. "I'm sorry that went so horribly." Clary tells him.

The quiet in the car is then interrupted by Jace's phone ringing loudly in between them. Clary reaches down and picks up the phone to see Alec's name lighting up the screen. "It's Alec." Clary says to him.

"I don't want to talk to him right now." Jace tells her and she slides the decline button over and sets it back down. A minute later, his phone pings letting them know that he has a new voice message but Jace doesn't even glance at it.

They ride the rest of the way in silence while Clary's fingers continue to relax him as they drag across his scalp. By the time they get to his penthouse, he has calmed down considerably. Trevor and Jace's body guard wait outside his door when they reach his penthouse and Jace pulls Clary inside. The moment the door is shut and locked, Jace surprises her by pulling her into a bruising kiss. His arms wrap around her while his hands hungrily grab at her. His tongue pushes into her mouth and Clary can't help but melt into him. She sucks in a long breath through her nose as he is unwilling to let her go to catch her breath. Her arms then snake around his neck and she is pulling him into her with desperation.

He reaches down without breaking their kiss and his hands slip around the back of her thighs and then he is picking her up and she wraps her legs around his waist. The next thing she knows, she is being carried over to his bedroom and her body starts to thrum with anticipation of what is about to come.


	10. Chapter 10

Jace is basking in the after glow as Clary lay tucked against his chest. Her fingers are trailing lightly up and down his chest while his tangle in her hair. "What time is it?" Clary asks, breaking the comfortable silence.

Jace leans over and looks at his clock and huffs out an unhappy breath. "We should leave soon." he tells her. "It's twelve-twenty. We have to be there at one and it takes about ten minutes to get there."

He feels Clary's chest rise and fall as she takes a deep breath and then she props herself up on her elbow and looks down at him. Her hair falls into her face, partially covering one eye, and he reaches out and tucks it behind her ear. "Let's hope telling your parents goes better than telling mine and Alec." she says dryly and Jace's lips pull up into a tight sort of smile.

"I think my mother won't care as much." Jace says as he tucks one hand behind his head. "She has been dying for me to stop fooling around and settle down. You could have three eyes and a parasitic twin growing from your stomach and she would still love you because you managed to tie me down."

Clary smiles hugely and laughs as she says, "A parasitic twin growing out of my stomach? Where did that come from?"

Jace shrugs and says, "I was watching the discovery channel last night when I couldn't sleep and it's all your fault. I wanted you here with me."

"Well maybe if you're nice, we can work something out for tonight? I am still avoiding my father."

"And what sort of things would you consider to be 'nice'?" Jace asks as he raises one brow in speculation.

"For one thing," Clary says sexily as she presses herself up against him some more, "what you did about twenty minutes ago, that was 'nice'."

"Oh. Was it now?" he says with a smile and leans into her for a kiss. She parts her lips for him and his grip around her tightens as he deepens the kiss. After a few heated seconds, Clary pulls back with a smirk as Jace's hand starts to slide down her side and over her hip. "Mr. Herondale." she says seductively. He responds with a sort of feral growl that sends shivers down her spine and he starts to lean into her again. "Aren't you forgetting something?" she asks again as he starts to pull her into him even more. His lips lower until they find her neck and he places a slow and lingering hot kiss to her soft skin there. She lets out a sigh before she continues. "Maybe you are forgetting your parents?"

His hand and lips immediately stop and he stiffly falls back onto the bed from where he had leaned up to try to seduce her again. "I really hate them right about now." he says dryly and Clary laughs once before leaning into him and kissing him quickly on the lips and hopping out of bed.

He opens his eyes and looks over to watch her get dressed and he still can't believe how beautiful she is. He has no idea what he did to deserve her. It's not like he is out spreading cheer and good karma in the world.

When she slips the eggplant colored blouse she was wearing over her head, he gets out of bed and finds his clothes and puts them back on. By the time he is done, Clary is in his bathroom, brushing her 'sex hair' and making sure her makeup isn't smudged. She sees him when he steps into the doorway and looks nervously over at him. "Do I look okay?" she asks him. "Is this the right thing to wear when meeting your boyfriend's parents who happen to hate your family's guts and wishes they would all just die?"

Jace can't help but let out an amused laugh at her summation of their situation and walks into the bathroom. He puts his hands on either side of her hips and slides in between her and the sink and holds her gaze. "You look absolutely beautiful." he reassures her. "You are dressed perfectly. Not too casual and not too dressy. Like usual, you are perfect."

Clary smiles and rolls her eyes gently as her hands come up between the two of them and come to rest on his chest. "I'm just really, really nervous." she admits to him. "There is a lot riding on this. If we can get both of our families to agree to accept our relationship, it could be the beginning of healing the deep wounds that our families caused each other."

Jace lets go of her hips and brings his hands up to cup her face. "Everything will work our fine." he tells her even though he has no clue if it will. "As long as I have you, I will be the happiest man on this Earth. I promise."

His words seem to relax her a little and she snakes her arms around his torso and turns her head to the side and rests it on his chest as she hugs him tightly. "Me too. I just want you." she tells him. "I love you."

"I love you too." he replies and kisses the top of her head and stares at the white wall of the bathroom behind her and thinks to himself 'I can't lose her. I just can't.'

* * *

The elevator doors slide open on Jace's parents floor, which is similar to his by being the only home on the floor of a swanky building, and he grabs on tighter to Clary's hand. He can feel the stress coming off of Clary's guard, Trevor, in waves. Every muscle in his body is tense with worry and alertness. We already discussed that he will be waiting right outside of the door because his parents don't like guards coming in their home, and if Clary needed him, she would yell and he would come running in through the door that Jace will leave unlocked for him. To say that Trevor didn't particularly like the plan, was an understatement.

Clary froze for a moment half way to the door and took a deep breath before letting Jace pull her the rest of the short distance to their penthouse. Once there, he paused and looked down at her. After a few seconds, Clary looked up at him and gave him a tentative smile before he bent down and kissed her passionately for a few seconds. When they pulled apart, both of their eyes were wild with passion and determination. That kiss was a reminder of why all of this was worth it. Why they would fight to the death for each other.

Jace then set his shoulders and stood up straight as he reached down and grasped the door knob. He swung the door open and stepped inside, pulling Clary with him. She tucked herself into his arm, wrapping her hand that wasn't in his around his bicep and standing with her side pressed up against him. Jace doesn't know if his father knows what Seraphina Morgenstern looks like or not. Valentine did a very good job of keeping her hidden from prying eyes until she started to work for him a couple of years ago. And she still keeps a low enough profile that Jace didn't know what she looked like. He just hopes that his father doesn't immediately recognize her. Clary isn't exactly too keen on Jace's plan but he assures her it is the best one for his parents. He wants to get them to like her first before telling them her name if they don't immediately recognize her.

As the door clicks shut behind him, he can hear Trevor reach out and turn the knob to make sure it is unlocked and then he hears his mother's humming coming closer. Clary's hand tightens around his and so he lets his thumb rub the back of her hand in soothing circles to try and calm her.

Jace takes a couple of steps further into the open floor plan of the penthouse and looks in the direction of the kitchen that is to the left and around a corner. He knows that is where his mother is while his father is likely in his office to the left. He sees that the door is closed which means he is probably on the phone conducting business. There is a small step down into the living area that he pulls them to and looks to his left to see his mother step out of the kitchen with a small apron tied around her waist. Her blonde hair is tied back nicely and her blue eyes light up when they land on Jace. "Jace." she says brightly as she unties the apron from around her waist. "I made some soup since I know that you probably aren't that hungry because of your brunch with Alec." She then takes her eyes off of Jace and they dart down to Clary who is still partially hidden behind Jace.

Jace looks down to Clary who is looking up at him, and he gives her a small reassuring nod. He watches as she takes a deep breath and then sees as she shoves away the nervous person who had taken up residence in her for a few minutes, and the Clary Morgenstern he knows and loves comes back to the surface.

She steps out from behind him fully and smiles warmly at his mother. Celine's eyes meet hers and her eyebrows raise with slight surprise. "She really _is_ beautiful." Celine says and continues on her path to Clary. "Your description didn't do her justice, Jace." she chastizes him and he rolls his eyes slightly. "I thought I did a good job describing how stunning she is." he retorts and she reaches the two of them then.

Clary sticks her hand out to his mother and she takes it in both of hers. "It is so good to meet you, Mrs. Herondale." Clary says sweetly and Celine's eyes get even brighter.

"Please, call me Celine." she tells her and then she furrows her brows slightly. "You look so familiar, Clary." she says and he can feel Clary tense slightly at her words. "Have we met before?"

"No ma'am." Clary tells her and Jace decides to change the subject.

"Where is Dad?" he asks.

"He's had to take some business call." she replies and gestures towards his closed office. "Are you sure we haven't met?" Celine asks her again and narrows her eyes in study at Clary some more.

"Mom." Jace says a little sternly. "You've never met her."

"Alright." Celine says a little defensively. "No need to get all bent out of shape about me asking." She then gestures towards the couch over by some windows. "Come and sit down while the soup finishes simmering and tell me how you managed to tame my son." Celine says with a friendly smile as she looks at Clary.

Clary lets out a slightly nervous and breathy chuckle as she nods and follows her with Jace close behind. When they sit down on the couch, Jace sits right next to Clary with his leg touching the whole length of hers and tucks one of his arms around her back and lets his hand come to rest on her hip. He pulls her tightly into him and one of her hands comes to rest on his leg. The closeness seems to relax her a little as she leans into him some more.

"So, Jace tells me that you met at a restaurant. He said that you had come there with someone else." Celine says as her eyes are on Clary with a small smile on her lips as she talks. "That doesn't surprise me because when my son sees something he wants, he doesn't let anything stop him from getting it."

"I did go there with someone else." Clary tells her. "It was my boyfriend at the time and I had planned to break up with him there that night."

"Planned to?" she asks questioningly.

Clary lets out a small humorless chuckle before she answers. "Yes. Planned to. My ex-boyfriend had different plans though. He actually proposed to me."

"And I am assuming that didn't go over well." she offers and Clary shakes her head no.

"Jace apparently saw the whole thing and knew that I probably needed a drink after crushing his heart and followed me out of the restaurant. He was pretty persuasive and before I knew it, I was climbing in his car and he was lip syncing Careless Whisper to me in a bar."

Jace laughs and Clary looks up at him and they share a moment of looking into each other's eyes. "You liked it even though you said you were embarrassed and called me cheesy." Jace says and Clary chuckles a little. "You were _very_ cheesy but very smooth. I think that is when you had me. When you pulled me up to dance with you."

"I am smooth and lithe on my feet. Just call me Lord of the Dance." Jace tells her playfully and she laughs as her eyes sparkle at him.

"Doesn't that mean that you have to wear tights now and wear tap shoes?" Clary teases him and his eyes go wide. "Never say such a thing again." he tells her and she laughs some more. In that moment, as he looks down at her smiling face, he knows that everything that they will go through will be worth it. It may not be easy but it will definitely be worth it.

He brings one of his hands up to cup her face as he looks down at her and smiles and he pulls her into a soft and sweet kiss. When he pulls back, they are both smiling those goofy smiles that people have when they are desperately in love and Clary's cheeks heat up just a little.

"Look at this." Celine says quietly and mostly to herself. Jace looks back over to her to see that she was watching the whole exchange and her eyes are swimming with happiness at the sight of the two of them. "I thought I wouldn't live to see the day when my son would look at a woman like he looks at you, Clary. It warms my heart to no end to see that."

Clary's blush deepens and she glances back up at Jace once more before looking back at Celine. "I'm lucky to be the one to be on the receiving end of that look. I didn't know someone could make me so happy until Jace. Thanks for making him who he is so that I could have someone to fall desperately in love with." She looks down at her hands then with a small huff and a small disbelieving smile says, "I never expected to be saying anything like that a week and a half ago...or ever." She looks back up to Celine then and continues. "I knew that you could fall in love with someone really fast because of my parent's love story, but experiencing it was something totally different." Clary then turns her face back up to Jace. "It is exciting and intense and feels absolutely amazing. I now can't imagine my life without him in it."

Jace's hand comes up and caresses her face again as he looks down at her lovingly and she turns to face his mother again. "Just listen to me." she says with a dry chuckle. "We just met and I am sitting here making sappy declarations of love instead of trying to make small talk about the weather."

Celine looks over at her with the warmest smile Jace has ever seen and then she is coming to sit on the other side of Clary. She reaches out and takes one of her hands and pulls it into her lap. "I could care less about the weather." Celine tells Clary with a soft smile. "I am just beyond relieved to be able to see that you are as much in love with my son as he is with you. It's written all over both of your sappy and lovesick faces." Both of the women then share a small laugh as they look at each other. "You have been the only thing he has been able to talk about for the past week and that is saying a lot because I am sure you know that he loves to talk about himself."

Clary lets out a louder laugh at that and he can feel her relax almost completely under his arm that is tucked around her. "That he does." Clary responds and Celine then surprises them both by pulling her into a hug. Clary lets one arm wrap tentatively around Celine's shoulders before they release each other and Jace thinks he sees his mother quickly wipe away a small tear under her eye as she lets go of his girlfriend.

He watches as his mother's eyes grow serious and she looks at Clary in the eyes. "Now, when can I expect grand-babies? It has been way too long since we have had a baby in this house."

"Mom!" Jace yells at his mother inhis most chastising tone. "That is not anywhere near our radar right now. Not even close."

"What?" his mother asks curiously. "Am I not allowed to want something I was sure I wasn't going to live long enough to see with the man-whore you were?"

He feels Clary's laughter before he can hear it. "I love your mom." Clary says through her laughs as she turns and looks back at him. "She doesn't hold back and puts you in your place. It's beyond entertaining to watch."

"Just face it now, darling." his mother says as she leans across Clary and pats Jace's cheek lightly. "You are never going to win another argument once I pull Clary over to my side. You don't stand a chance."

"I am starting to see that." he replies flatly and both women chuckle at the look of utter defeat Jace's face. Just as he is about to voice a retort, he hears his father's office door open. He looks over his shoulder and behind him to see his father smoothing down his shirt and running a hand through his golden hair. Stephen looks up and his golden eyes meet with Jace's (the only thing he inherited from him) and his heart jumps into his throat. His mother obviously doesn't know who Clary is, even though she looks just like her mother, which is why she said Clary looked so familiar. His mother and Clary are still unaware of his father approaching because they have started a small conversation between them and Jace just watches as his father gets closer and closer.

When he is about to come around the couch and see Clary, Jace stands up quickly and places himself in front of Stephen while the women talk behind him. "Sorry I'm late." he tells Jace. "There was a problem with a shipment and I had to take care of it."

"That's fine, Dad." Jace tells him. He glances back at Clary and his mother and sees that Celine has just turned her head to her husband with a smile in acknowledgment of his presence. "I love her already." Celine says to Stephen with a warm smile and Clary's head snaps over to the two men. Her face pales slightly and then she looks back down at her hands in her lap and swallows before she stands up.

Jace's face turns back to his father to gauge his reaction as Clary turns towards them and moves to hold Jace's hand. Stephen's eyes narrow intensely at Clary when he sees her face and her eyes come up to meet his. She bravely holds out her hand to him and he slowly raises it to gently shake her hand. "Dad, this is Clary." Jace says in way of introduction as he sees his father's brain working overtime in an effort to place her familiar looking face. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Herondale." Clary says to him and he pulls his hand back.

Suddenly, Stephen's face changes. It's like a light was switched on in his head and his eyes fly up to his son. "Who is she?" his father demands as his eyes dart back to Clary. "She looks exactly like Jocelyn Morgenstern."

Jace then steps slightly in front of her and tries to cage her in behind his back. "That's because that is her mother."

He instantly hears his mother's startled intake of breath behind him and he feels Clary's body tense where it is touching him, but he doesn't take his eyes off of his father. He watches as his eyes instantly grow hard and angry and his face turns red and his jaw tightens. "Is this some sort of joke to you?" Stephen spits out at Jace.

"Not at all, Dad." he replies sternly. "I told you I didn't know what her last name was. I saw her bodyguard, who I thought was just her friend at the meeting the other day, and things just kind of went from there."

"Then she is the one that knew all along." Stephen accuses as he tries to step around his son to get to Clary. "Why else would she tell you her name was Clary when we know it's Seraphina? You've let yourself be played as a damn fool, son."

"Her name is Seraphina Clarissa Morgenstern. Clary is short for Clarissa just like you call me Jace for my initials. No one was trying to fool anyone here."

"She's a _fucking Morgenstern_ , Jonathan, and you brought her into my home." Stephen says her name like a curse word as his face gets impossibly redder. Jace sees his mother then as she comes around the couch and moves to stand beside her husband. She places a hand on his arm and tries to get him to look at her with no luck.

"Yes, she is a Morgenstern. But she also happens to be who I am in love with." Jace tells his father with his most authoritative voice. "There is nothing you can say or do to change that."

"I forbid it!" his father shouts at him. "She is a fucking slimy piece of shit like her whole family has always been. There is nothing _you_ can say or do to change _that_."

"Stephen!" Celine shouts at him. "That's enough!"

"Say it again, father." Jace says angrily in a snarl as he steps closer to him. "Call her that again. I dare you."

Celine's face grows deathly serious as she looks between the two men and then she is placing herself in between the two of them. "Both of you are acting like children!" she shouts as her eyes move between her son and husband. "The last time I checked, I was part of this family too and I get to have a say as well." Her voice is strong and sure and they both look down to her small body in between the two of them.

"Go ahead. Tell him what a fool he is." Stephen says with a small smirk tugging on one side of his mouth.

"I will do no such thing." she tells him and his smirk falters as he looks at his wife. "I have been sitting here with them for the past fifteen minutes and I have been able to see them interact and I will not agree with you, Stephen. If you would only look at them for just a moment, you would see how in love they are with each other."

"That's insane!" he shouts at Celine. " _You're_ insane! She's a Morgenstern!"

"And I was a Montclaire and you killed my father." she tells him and he flinches away from the reminder of how the two of them met. Celine was a music teacher and her father was a business owner that was being run by the Herondales because her father owed them money. When her father grew tired of being pushed around, he refused to cooperate with Stephen, who had just taken over the business when the eldest Herondale was diagnosed with Alzheimers, he had her father killed. Celine's father never told Celine about the Herondale's and when she took over after his out of the blue heart attack, Stephen came in and asked her on a date instead of trying to 'lay down the law' with the new owner. It was only after they had been together a year and a half that she found out what really happened to her father.

"If I can forgive you for that, the least you can do is not hold her family's past sins against her. She is like Jace in all of this. Completely innocent in this senseless feud that has been drawn out for way too long now." Celine's eyes are angry and hard on her husband while his are slightly regretful for what he did to his wife's father. "I give my blessing to them. You would be wise to do the same if you want to keep you son in your life and eventually see the grandchildren Clary just promised me."

"Sorry babe." Jace hears Clary's soft and quiet voice from behind him. "She cornered me when you turned away and she is very persuasive."

Even though this is the most stressful moment of his life, Jace can't help but bring one of his hands up to slide down his face as he lets out a dry laugh. "Tell me about it." Jace mutters back to her and then looks back at his mother to reproach her but she just squares her shoulders and looks challengingly at her son; daring him to say anything.

"You have all gone mad!" Stephen practically shouts but Jace can tell by his posture and tone that most of his anger has passed. He throws his hands up in exasperation as he looks at his wife and son. "What makes you so sure of her?" he asks as he looks at Jace. "What makes you think that all of this wasn't some sort of set up for her to sneak her way into this family and then go back to her father and tell him everything? All of our operations?"

"That's exactly what her father said." Jace says dryly to his father, catching him completely off guard. Stephen's eyes go wide with surprise as his mouth pops open slightly. "He knows about this?" he asks with an incredulous tone.

"We told him yesterday after we found out who each other were two days ago. We wanted to have everything out in the open because of who our families are and the less than friendly history between them."

"And what did he say about this?" Stephen asks as his eyes look to Clary and she steps out from behind Jace, where he pushed her.

Jace is surprised when Clary speaks before he can. "He said he would think about it. I told him that we love each other and there is nothing he can do about it. That we were going to be together one way or the other. When he saw how serious I was, he told me he would think about it. I suspect he will come around because he wants me to be happy and Jace makes me happy. He's not a monster like you probably think he is. He has to show you nothing but strength for fear of you exploiting his 'soft spots' just like I am sure you do the same with him. We are all much more alike than either of our families are willing to admit. That is probably why Jace and I are so perfect together and why we can work out in the long run. I understand him and he understands me."

Jace decides to speak up then. "We already agreed on not talking about business. I will tell her nothing and she will tell me nothing. Clary and I can handle the accounts that are in both of our territories so no one will be able to get over on either of us. It's really not a bad deal if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you." his father retorts at him, not knowing what else to say. Jace can see that his father is slowly wearing down under the pressure from him and his mother. The only thing his father has ever been scared of is his mother and the way she is looking at him right now, he wouldn't want to be him for all of the money in the world.

"Stephen." Celine says sternly yet softly to him. His attention moves to her as she starts to speak. "I am sure Valentine saw what I saw between them before you came out here and started shouting. I can honestly say with one hundred percent certainty that they are in love. Most importantly, Jace loves her. How many times have we worried that we went wrong with him somewhere because of his aversion to settling down. He would laugh and call us crazy when we would bring it up." Stephen opens his mouth to say something but Celine narrows her eyes at him and he quickly closes it. "You came to me yesterday and told me that our son was glowing and smiling from ear to ear. You said that he looked like he was crazy in love with this girl Clary and that he even gave you the shock of your life when he told you that he was in love. You were so excited to meet her. If I remember correctly, your exact words were, 'Whoever this girl is to finally get my boy to fall in love so hard and fast, she must be something incredibly special. I've never seen him look so at peace. I can't wait to meet this woman.' You see the change in him. That only comes from loving someone and them loving you back. Don't you remember what it was like to be young and out of your mind in love?"

"Yes, I do, but that is not the point." Stephen argues.

"Then what is the point?" Celine asks him. "That she is a Morgenstern? If she wanted to kill you or me or Jace, she has had plenty of opportunities by now to do it. That would be the easiest way to take over if that is what you are worried about. It doesn't make any sense that Valentine would send her in here to spend years gaining our trust and then slowly pick us off, one by one. Getting rid of the problem is the best and most efficient way to take over and as far as I can see, she is standing in our living room, unarmed and without a guard to protect her. Valentine would never send her in here unprotected if she was meant to try and kill us."

"Dad," Jace says softly as his father's shoulders slump and he turns his back to him and brings a hand up to his face in a sign of stress. "I love her. We want to make this work. We want to bring a more solid peace between our families and work together and not against one another. I'm not saying that we are all going to spend all of the holidays together and exchange presents, but Clary and I being together is a good thing for our families. I wouldn't be fighting this hard for her and I certainly wouldn't have exposed myself to her family with no protection like I did if I weren't dead serious about us. You know how selfish I can be and that I would never push so hard for something so difficult if I wan't one-hundred percent sure about it. But with Clary, there is no doubt in my mind that we were meant to be together. She is my other half that I didn't know I was missing and now that I have it, I am never going to let it go."

"Jace..." his father says and then sighs heavily as he turns around.

"Just give her a chance, Dad." Jace pleads with him. "I know you'll love her."

Stephen takes his eyes off of his son and looks over at Clary who is holding on tightly to Jace's arm. "You really do look just like your mother." he tells her and a small smile pulls on the edges of her lips. "I'll take that as a compliment." Clary responds and then there is an audible sigh from Celine.

"Now, how about we go sit down and have the most awkward meal of our lives?" Celine says in a very cheery voice and Clary laughs a little while the two men remain silent.

"I like your mom." Clary leans in and whispers to Jace.

"I told you you would." he tells her and then throws his arm over her shoulders and places a kiss on her forehead as they start to follow his parents into the kitchen.

* * *

 _I am going to try and get another chapter up before next week, but no promises. I am going on vacation next week and I won't get anything up then. I am going to also try and write another chapter and have it up soon for Remember Me, but once again, no promises, but I will try my absolute best._

 _Thanks again for reading and don't forget to review and tell me what you think!_


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry about the long wait! I had a bit of writers block. I want to thank AlesiaJ89 immensely for helping me get over it by giving me an awesome idea. You're the best!**

* * *

The sound of spoons hitting the insides of bowls is the only sound that fills the dining room where Clary and her boyfriend and his parents are. Celine was right. This is the most awkward meal of her life. The heavy silence filling the room is somehow deafening to her ears and she desperately starts to think of a million ways she could excuse herself and leave without garnering more hatred from his father.

Stephen Herondale won't stop watching her while his eyes dart over to his son to glare at him every once and a while. No one seems to know what to say in this moment so Clary sets her spoon down in her bowl and dabs her mouth with her napkin before looking up and smiling at Celine. "The soup is delicious." she says softly with a smile.

"Thank you, Clary." she replies and then the room goes silent again. Another long minute passes with just the sound of their spoons hitting their bowls again before Jace abruptly drops his into his soup.

"This is ridiculous." Jace says exasperatedly as he looks over to his parents.

"I couldn't agree more." his father says as he narrows his eyes at Clary.

"Not my relationship with her." Jace says defensively. "This lunch. The heavy silence over us. We are all adults and should be able to hold a civil conversation between the four of us."

Stephen's eyes focus completely on Jace as he wipes his lips with his napkin and leans back in his chair and then folds his arms across his chest. "What subject do you think will be most suitable for us then?" he asks his son with a superior tone. "How many people each of us has killed or how many times we've been shot at? Oh, I know." Stephen says as he smirks and leans forward, resting his elbows on the table with a smirk on his face. "How about we each trade secrets of how we torture people to get information out of them. My favorite thing to do is to take a pair of pliers and..."

Celine thankfully cuts him off. "That is enough, Stephen. You've proved your point."

"And what point is that, dear wife?"

"That you don't think that they will work out." she quips back at him. "That there is too much bad blood between our families."

"And I could give two flying fucks about all of that." Jace interjects and Clary suddenly feels like she shouldn't be there. Like she is intruding on some private family conversation. "I refuse to let you and Valentine's stupid fucking hatred towards each other ruin my love for her. You don't get to spoil this for me."

"I'm not trying to spoil it." Stephen replies. "I am just trying to get you to see that your relationship will be too hard. It was doomed before it even started."

"Nothing worth having is easy to obtain." Jace tells him. "You taught me that. You have to work for what you want and you should never give up if it is what you truly want and will make you the most happy."

Stephen's face then turns slightly surprised with his mouth popping slightly open. After a few seconds he closes his mouth and leans back in his chair tiredly. "I did say that." he says and his eyes unwillingly move to look at Clary. He studies her for a second before looking back to his son with a more understanding look in his eyes. "Alright." he says in a resigned voice. "I'll give her and your relationship a shot. But just one."

Jace's hand then moves under the table and grabs a hold of Clary's and she watches as his whole body relaxes out of the tense state it was just in. "Thank you, dad." Jace says lowly to him. "That means the world to me."

Clary chances a look over at Celine who is looking at her husband with unbelievable warmth and pride in her eyes. She can see the love radiating from her as she looks at Stephen and she briefly wonders if that is how she looks at Jace and if it's not, if she will eventually one day. That wouldn't be so bad.

Celine seems to feel her gaze and turns her head to look at her. "So Clary," she says brightly, breaking the heavy moment between father and son, "Jace tells me that you are an artist. I know your mother is herself an amazing artist. Do you think that is where you get your talent from?"

Clary smiles over at her, eternally thankful that his mother is so easy to talk to and says proudly, "My mother taught me everything I know."

"That's wonderful that you share something that you both love with each other." she says warmly and then she looks to Jace. "Did you know that Jace plays the piano and has composed a few songs? I taught him how to play starting when he was three."

Clary's brows raise in surprise as she turns and looks at him next to her. "That is something that he managed to leave out of our many endless conversations."

He smiles a little sheepishly at her before saying, "I have a bad boy image to keep up. I can't run around and let people know that I play the piano and make up songs."

Clary doesn't know what exactly about his answers she finds so funny but she releases out a loud and abrupt roll of laughter after he says that. While she is trying to regain her composure and stop laughing, Stephen watches her with studious eyes and watches as her eyes shine up at his son and Jace's eyes light up when he looks down at her. Jace's eyes start to narrow down at his girlfriend after his mother joins in on Clary's laughter and his lips purse at her. "You see." he says knowingly. "This reaction is what I was afraid of."

Clary stills her laughs for a moment but the smile remains on her face as she says, "I am not laughing at you playing the piano and composing. I am laughing because you were worried about your 'bad boy' image when you are the son of a notorious crime boss. I think your 'bad boy' image could survive the news that you play the piano."

Jace watches her laughing lightly and smiling at him and then he is cracking a small smile back at her and then sighs. "I guess you are right." he admits and then leans over and gives her a quick peck on the lips.

"Does this mean that I will be serenaded anytime in the near future?" Clary asks him as she tries to raise one brow questioningly and fails miserably.

"Maybe." he says with a shrug of his shoulders and a sly smile and a husky tone that promises of something more. Celine then clears her throat lightly and Clary looks back over to her and a very slight blush creeps onto her cheeks when she realizes that she could hear what Jace said to her. She suspects that Celine knows exactly what Jace was getting at with his suggestive tone towards her.

Stephen doesn't say much throughout the next fifteen minutes of finishing lunch. He only speaks in short answers when his wife asks him a question. Clary is content with not speaking directly to him with the way his face switches between slight glaring and a look of suspicious interest at her. She guesses that he is studying everything about her. The way she talks and holds herself to the way she eats. Like she is a subject worthy of being studied. She has to remind herself that he is just doing the same thing her dad would do if he had to sit down with Jace. He is weary of her and that is okay. Only time will prove that she isn't the spawn of the devil like he probably thinks she is.

They talk about her art and Celine tells her a very entertaining story about when Jace was five and went through a 'I hate clothes' phase and ran around naked for a month. Anytime she would manage to get clothes on him, he would just run into a room and lock the door and take them off again. The most entertaining part of the whole story was Jace's red and embarrassed face. Especially when she told of the time he stripped naked in a bakery and got into the giant bag of flour in the back of the store an attempt to escape his mother who was chasing after him with his clothes. Celine informed Clary that she had a picture of the whole thing, him naked and covered head to toe in flour, and when she offered to go and get it to show Clary, Jace gave her a look that would make lesser humans cower. His mother just smiled fondly at him and told her that she would just have to show her another time and Jace quickly changed the subject.

When they all had finished their lunch, Stephen excused himself fairly abruptly and retreated to his office while Jace stood and helped Clary out of her chair. "I think that this has been enough of pushing Dad's patience for today." Jace says as he looks over the table to his mother.

"I would have to agree with that." she replies and then looks over to Clary. "Well, Clary," she says almost tiredly to her, ",it truly was nice to meet you since Jace hasn't stopped talking about you for the past week."

Clary turns her head and smiles up at her boyfriend and tells herself to reward him for all of the apparently wonderful things he said about her to his mother. "Well, I'm just glad that no one shot at me when I told you my name." she says and then lets out a nervous chuckle as his mother lets out a small and slightly forced one of her own. Something about her laugh makes Clary think that that might have actually been an option at one point she suspects (hopefully) from his father and not his mother.

"We'll get going then." Jace says and his mother walks around the table and gives him a hug and then turns to Clary. She is surprised when she pulls her in for a hug and Clary looks questioningly up at Jace over her shoulder. He gives her a nod and her arms hesitantly move up and hug her lightly back. Celine pulls back after a moment and then steps away as Jace grabs Clary's hand and starts to pull her over towards the front door.

"Call me later." Celine tells Jace. "And come over and see your father at some point tomorrow also. You should talk to him."

"Yes, mom." Jace mumbles and Clary smirks at the big bad crime boss's son still being told what to do by his mommy. For some reason, she absolutely loves that fact.

When the door swings open, Clary can see the relieved look on her body guard Trevor's face. She pats him on the arm as she passes as if to reassure him and then walks over to the elevator with Jace coming to stand right beside her. "That went a hell of a lot better than I thought it would." Clary remarks as he reaches out and presses the elevator button.

"I knew my mom could be made to see reason. It certainly helped that we got the first ten minutes alone with her and her not knowing who you were." Jace replies. "She actually got to see you as you and not immediately as Valentine Morgenstern's daughter."

"I just wish my dad would have done the same thing." she tells him with a twinge of sadness to her voice. Jace's hand rises up to her chin and he brings her face up to look at him. "Don't worry. Everything will work out with time." he tells her reassuringly. "We just have to give them time to get used to the idea and then they will see that we really do love each other. So much so that it will probably disgust them with how much we look longingly into each other's eyes."

Clary's mouth pulls up in a reluctant smile and she huffs out a small laugh as she lightly pushes on his chest. "You are so stupid." she tells him playfully.

"Maybe." he tells her with a light shrug of his shoulders. "But you like it and think I'm charming and incredibly sexy and want to tear my clothes off right about now."

"Ha!" she says loudly with a smile. "You wish." The elevator doors open and she steps in first followed by Jace and their two body guards. She looks to her left and then to her right at the two men and pouts a little. "Even if I did want to tear your clothes off, we would have an audience." she says exasperatedly.

"Not if I tell them to turn around." Jace says in a husky voice as he wraps his arms around her waist and turns her body to face his. His eyes meet hers and she can see the look of want in them. "How about some privacy, boys." Jace says and the two men turn around to face the walls. Trevor does so reluctantly and slower than Jace's guy but when he does, Jace pulls her mouth to his.

She can't help but let out a small contented sigh as his soft lips press against hers. Her arms move of their own accord and she brings them up and wraps them around his neck as his arms tighten around her. One of his hands slides down and he grabs one of her ass cheeks and gives is slow squeeze as the other slides up her back, coming to rest between her shoulder blades, and pushes her top half tightly against his chest.

Her mouth opens and he slips his tongue into her and the kiss suddenly becomes a lot more serious. Her hands fist in his golden hair, tugging at the roots as she presses her hips against his. She can feel him through his pants and just as she is about to slip a hand down his chest and make her way there, the elevator doors open. There is a surprised noise from someone followed by, "Jace." in a tense voice.

She quickly untangles herself from him and turns to see who is there. Her eyes narrow and she scowls when she sees that it is Alec Lightwood, remembering his reaction to their relationship this morning. Clary's hand goes to her lips and wipes away a little bit of wetness in the corner of her mouth from their kiss as Jace looks sternly at him. "Did you come here to tell me in more ways you think this is a bad idea?" Jace quips angrily at him. His voice is clipped and tight as he continues. "Or did you come here to try and tell my father before I had a chance?"

Alec has the decency to look guilty as he brings his hand up and runs it through his midnight black hair. His eyes drop to the marble floor and Jace pulls them out of the elevator to stand in front of his best friend. After a few seconds, Alec looks back up to Jace and locks his eyes on him. "I came here to apologize to you." he tells Jace and his face remains completely impassive as he looks at Alec. "I was way out of line and I shouldn't have said those things to you."

"I'm not the only one you said them to." Jace says in a tight voice. Alec seems extremely reluctant to look down at Clary but he tears his eyes off of Jace and they land on her. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier."

Clary returns his gaze with a stern one of hers. If he is expecting to say that she forgives him, then he is sorely mistaken. She has her father's temper and will need some time and space before she will even consider forgiving him.

When neither of them say anything, Alec turns his eyes back up to Jace and she can see them soften considerably as he looks at him. "I mean it. I shouldn't have said those things. I understand if you are still mad at me but you have to know that wasn't me earlier." Alec's eyes dart down to Clary for a second, clearly wishing she wasn't there, and then back up to Jace as he continues. "I just worry about you. You're my best friend and I don't want someone taking advantage of you or putting you in danger."

"I am a big boy, Alec." Jace replies. His voice is a little softer this time when he speaks. "I can take care of myself. I don't need you to tell me what you think I should be doing with my life and with whom."

"I know, I know." Alec says to him. His voice has also gotten softer as he steps a little bit closer to Jace. His eyes once again dart over to Clary and he looks back to Jace and says, "Can we just talk in private for a moment."

"No." Jace replies quickly and firmly. "Whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of the both of us." Jace reaches down and grabs hold of Clary's hand and she couldn't feel better by his actions. He is clearly letting Alec know that she isn't going anywhere and he had better get used to it if he wants to stay in his life.

Clary watches as Alec's face falls for a moment before he schools it into a blank look as he steps back a little and says, "Just...watch your back." Alec says with a little worry and Clary can't help but scowl at him a little more. He doesn't acknowledge her as Jace's looks at his friend with a little bit of exasperation mixed with understanding. "I always do." Jace replies and then Alec just nods his head once in satisfaction at his words.

"I am busy tomorrow but can we have lunch or dinner, just the two of us, the day after tomorrow?" Alec asks. There is a hopeful edge to his voice and Jace seems to think about it for a few seconds before nodding his head in agreement. Alec's lips turn up into a relieved yet small smile at his agreement and then takes a small step back. Jace takes this as a sign that they are done and then is pulling Clary along by their conjoined hands toward the door to outside.

Clary doesn't say a word as they wait for Jace's car to be pulled around because so far, she doesn't have anything nice to say about Alec whom she can clearly tell is occupying Jace's thoughts. If he wants her to like Alec, it will take time. Clary Morgenstern is too much like her father to so easily forgive and forget. She just hopes that Alec will lay off of their relationship. It is _never_ good when the best friend doesn't like you and doesn't approve of your relationship. That could create tension between them and cause fights and that is the last thing they need in their already complicated and hard relationship.

When his car is pulled around and they slip into it, Jace looks over at Clary after he starts the car and waits until she is looking back at him. "He is just worried about me." Jace says softly to Clary. Apparently, she wasn't fooling anybody about her thinking about not liking Alec. "He's my best friend and just wants me to be safe."

"Yes, but you don't have anything to worry about from me." Clary says back to him. "I love you. I could never even imagine hurting you." Her voice has softened as she talked and now she is reaching across the car to grab his hand. "If he had just given me a chance, he would have seen that. Instead he instantly hated me without even knowing anything about me other than my name."

"I know." Jace says as he squeezes her hand. "That is why I was so mad at him. He knows he messed up and is trying to make up for it. I know his day today was fully booked. I am sure he had to cancel something important to come here to apologize. Just don't write him off just yet. Okay?"

Clary takes a deep breath as she looks into his eyes and sees the pleading look he is giving her. She blows the air out of her nose roughly and then is saying, "Alright. But if he goes crazy and starts insulting me again..."

Jace cuts her off, "Then I will punch him in his face."

Clary smiles at him and then he is leaning across the console and pulling her lips to his.

* * *

"So," Clary says as she plops down on the couch next to Jace. "what do you want to do tonight?" she asks. She is wearing one of his t-shirts and her underwear after they came back to his place and he took her straight to bed.

"Do you want to try and go to Taki's again since we didn't get to eat brunch there?" Jace asks as he slings his arm over her shoulders. She sinks down into his side as he searches for something to watch on the T.V.

"That sounds good." she tells him and turns her head to look up at him. "The only problem is I don't have the right clothes for it."

"Do you want to drive back to your place and pick something up?" he asks as he looks down at her.

"No." she says exasperatedly. "It takes twenty five minutes to just get there. I don't want to spend an hour in the car just to get a change of clothes." She lets go of his gaze and looks ahead to the television. A few minutes pass when she gets an idea. "What time is it babe?" she asks Jace.

He reaches down beside him and picks up his phone to look at the screen. "It's almost five."

"Perfect." she says as she sits up from the couch and stands and walks over to where her purse is on a table in his entryway. She digs in it for a minute before pulling out her phone and dialing a number. Jace is watching her with a questioning look on her face and she just smiles back at him.

"Hey Maia!" Clary says with a smile into the phone. "I need you to do me a huge favor."

 _"And what is that?"_ Maia asks sounding a little weary on the other end of the phone.

"Can you go over to my place and grab my green knee length cocktail dress with the low V neck line?" she asks her. "I am at Jace's and we want to go out to dinner but I don't have anything to wear. I also know that Jordan is relieving Trevor at six and I figured you could just give the dress to Jordan and he can bring it to me."

Maia makes a show of huffing loudly into the phone like she is annoyed but replies with, _"Sure. I can do that. What shoes do you want to go with it?"_

"The black strappy stilettos. Oh, and grab my flat iron too. I'd love to put some light curls in my hair. Thank you SO much. You are truly the best!"

 _"You had better know I am."_ Maia says flatly before hanging up and Clary walks back over to where Jace is on the couch. He is watching her with a thoughtful look on his face as she sits back down next to him and snuggles up to his side. After a few minutes, she can still feel his eyes on her so she looks up to him. "What?" she asks.

"Why don't you bring some of your stuff to keep over here." he says catching her by complete surprise. "Like some changes of clothes and shoes for instances like this one."

Clary is completely surprised by what he just said. That is strictly a 'few months into the relationship' kind of step. Her and Sebastian only started doing that after a year of dating. Even though it makes perfect sense to do it because they live so far apart, it is still a big step in their relationship. Especially for Jace who was such a man-whore before meeting her.

"Are you sure?" Clary asks him. "You wouldn't mind?"

"I think I would actually kind of like it." he admits to her as his fingers tuck a piece of her hair behind one of her ears while his eyes follow the motion. "I like having you here and when you aren't here, at least I will have some of your stuff here. It is a nice reminder that you will come back and...I don't know. I just like the idea of it."

"Aww. Babe." Clary says as she cranes her neck up and kisses him on the lips. "I can bring some stuff over this weekend." she says when she pulls back and Jace just smiles widely down at her.

* * *

They pull up to the curb outside of Taki's for their eight o'clock reservation and Jace hops out and tosses his keys to a valet. He hurries over to Clary's side and offers his hand to help her get out of the car which she gladly takes. Her form fitting emerald green cocktail dress rides up a little to her mid thigh as she steps out and she has to push it back down to the knee length like it is supposed to be when she stands. But not before seeing that Jace and one of the other valet's eyes had found her legs and gotten a long good look at them.

As they enter the restaurant, the host sees Jace immediately and flashes him his most charming and friendly smile as he hurries over to them. "Welcome back Mr. Herondale." he says cheerily. "We have your table ready for you."

Jace leans into Clary and she sees that he has his phone in his hand and is reading some text. "I have to call someone. Why don't you go ahead and sit down. Sorry, love." he says to her.

"It's okay." she says with a smile back to him and he kisses her on her cheek before stepping back outside while dialing a number. The host looks to her and then motions that she follow him. They start to make their way through the restaurant, passing table after table while acquiring many looks from men as she walks by. Clary looks up and is suddenly met with a familiar set of eyes that she has seen many times before. His grey eyes light up with surprise and she places a fond smile on her lips as the host continues to walk towards their table in the back. She can see the unoccupied table that is surely meant for them up ahead, but unfortunately, it takes her right by the man and she readies herself for an uncomfortable conversation.

"Clary, dear!" Sebastian's boss of his legitimate job (not his off hours job with her father), Jack Williston, coos at her as she comes to stop in front of him. He is already standing out of his seat while the two other men at the table that she vaguely recognizes from Sebastian's work give her appreciative looks. Thankfully, Sebastian isn't one of them. "It's so wonderful to see you again." His smile is bright and welcoming and her face softens at him. He has always been so nice to her. "It's great to see you too, Mr. Williston." she tells him.

"How many times have I told you to call me Jack?" he says in his most playfully chastising tone.

"Too many." she says with a small chuckle as he lifts her hand to his lips and kisses it.

"Sebastian didn't tell me that you would be joining us." he says with happiness and she furrows her brows lightly in confusion. Just as she is about to say something back, she hears an all too familiar voice come from very close behind her.

"That's because she didn't know we were here." She spins on her heels swiftly and sees the very controlled face of Sebastian as he looks down at her. To others who don't know him as well as she does, they would see nothing in his face but when she looks into his eyes, she can see the hurt in them before he quickly pulls his eyes back to his boss. "Sorry I'm a little late." he tells Jack as he steps to stand beside her.

"No problem. It's only a few minutes." his boss replies and Clary nervously tucks her hair behind one of her ears. Jack looks back to Clary and smiles as he says, "Well since you are here, why don't you join us? I am sure whichever friend of yours you came with wouldn't mind too terribly."

"That's not the best idea." Sebastian says as his eyes stay locked on his boss. "Clary and I broke up recently."

Jack's face becomes slightly shocked as he says, "But I thought the two of you were getting engag..."

He doesn't finish the sentence because Sebastian cuts him off saying, "No. We parted ways." Clary can hear the tenseness to his words and she steals a look at him to see that pained look in his eyes has come to the surface for a moment.

Jack, seeming to realize what is going on, looks between the two of them before his face grows more serious. "Sorry to hear that." he says as the air between them turns very uncomfortable, very quickly. They all look down at their feet for a moment before Sebastian clears his throat lightly and says. "Well Clary, we won't keep you any longer."

She looks up to him and gives him a fond and appreciative look and is about to say, 'It was nice seeing you' when she feels a hand on the small of her back. "Sorry to keep you waiting, darling." she hears Jace say from behind her and her heart drops into her stomach. She stands there frozen for two seconds before she looks up to Sebastian to gauge his reaction.

His eyes are hard over her head where they rest on Jace and she can see the muscles in his jaw flexing ever so slightly. Jace, sensing the tense atmosphere, steps to beside Clary while his left hand is still on the small of her back and extends his right hand to Sebastian's boss. "I see you know my girlfriend. I'm Jonathan Herondale." he says in introduction and her eyes fly back to Sebastian and lock there.

She watches as his eyes get incredibly wide and then turn angry as they look at him. She can hear his boss introduce himself to Jace from her other side, but she doesn't take her eyes off of Sebastian. His fists clench at his side and his jaw clenches even more as the two incredibly long seconds pass since hearing his name. 'Shit. This is absolutely horrible.' she thinks to herself. Sebastian knew that she had started to see someone else but he very obviously didn't know who.

She reaches over to him and places her hand on his arm to try and communicate for him to calm down but he doesn't seem to respond to it. She can see from her peripheral vision, Jace turn to face Sebastian, them looking at each other for the first time, and she can feel Jace stiffen as he surely realizes who Sebastian is from the night they met. If he didn't recognize him, she is sure the look of pure death and protectiveness for her Sebastian is giving him would give it away.

Sebastian makes a tiny movement closer to Clary and his hand twitches towards her. Her hand is still on his arm so she gives it a hard squeeze and that does the trick. His eyes break away from Jace and move down to meet hers. She gives him an apologetic look and then he reaches out and places his hand on the top of her back as he looks hard down at her.

Jace makes a small movement towards Sebastian and she can feel his hand reach around her side like he is going to pull her back towards him, but her eyes stay on Sebastian. "Can we talk for a minute?" Sebastian asks, his voice tense and hard indicating that he didn't want to give her the choice to say no.

Clary is slightly surprised by his words and she starts to feel Jace pull on her lightly while Sebastian's hand on her back starts to pull her in his direction. Both of them making her feel like they are ready to either pull her out of the way to fight or to make her choose between them, and to the victor go the spoils. She has never felt more torn and uncomfortable in her whole life than she does as she looks back to Jace and then back to Sebastian. There doesn't seem to be a right answer here. With one last look at Sebastian, she looks over at Jace and says, "Just give me a moment." and indicates to Sebastian.

He obviously doesn't like her answer but leans in and kisses her on the cheek and pulls back and says, "I'll be right over there." and nods his head to the vacant table a few tables down and in the corner of the dining area.

He reluctantly steps away and she feels his hand slide off of the small of her back only to be replaced by Sebastian's hand as he starts to guide her over to a corner of the restaurant near the small bar along the far wall. She can practically feel his feeling of victory coming off of him in waves as she looks up and sees a small smirk on his face. He hurries her over to an alcove and once he feels they are secluded enough, his eyes look down and meet hers with a very determined and serious look on his face and he says...

* * *

 _Alright, I am taking suggestions on what Sebastian should say because I can't decide between three options myself. Help me by telling me what you think his reaction would be!_


	12. Chapter 12

**I know, I know. I'm sorry. I kind of dropped off the face of the Earth there for a while. I have a good reason though. I promise. I am the caretaker for my elderly grandfather (he's 86) and he had surgery and has had a hard time recovering. That has taken up almost all of my free time. He is getting better now though and that is why I finally have another chapter here. And it's a super long one too. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"What the hell are you thinking, Clary?" Sebastian says almost angrily. "Let's get you out of here before he finds out who you are. By the lack of shock on yours when he said his name, you already knew who he was."

Clary looks up to him and starts to say his name when he starts talking again. "I don't give a shit what your father has gotten you into. He always talked about infiltrating the Herondales but I never thought he would use you to do it. It's too dangerous, Clary. Come on."

Sebastian reaches down and grabs her upper arm and tries to pull her out of the alcove. She stays put and uses her other hand to pull his hand from around her arm. "Stop Sebastian." she tells him firmly.

He looks down at her with a surprised look on his face and furrows his brows. "What?" he asks her.

She brings one hand up and briefly pinches the bridge of her nose when she sees movement from the corner of her eye. She looks up and sees Jace's bodyguard looking over at her with a question in his eyes. His hand is hovering over his waist where his gun is and she shakes her head at him and he puts his hand back by his side. His eyes stay tense and steady on them as she looks back up to Sebastian. "Who's that?" he asks her.

"That is one of Jace's body guards." she explains to him.

"What the hell is going on here?" he says in an accusatory tone as he glances back over at the bodyguard before turning back to Clary and training his eyes on her.

She feels the full intensity of his stare and then closes her eyes. This is not how she wanted him to find out who she is dating. He already knew that she was dating someone, partly because of the photo she accidentally sent him and partly from her mother telling him, but she didn't want to be the one to tell him exactly who she was dating. "Jace, Jonathan Herondale, is my boyfriend." she says as she opens her eyes back up and looks at him. "And my father has nothing to do with me being with him."

Sebastian starts to shake his head back and forth gently as he still looks confused. "I still don't understand. Your mother said you were already dating someone else. It couldn't possibly be him. Your father would never allow it if he didn't set it up so you could infiltrate them."

"My parents didn't know who I was dating. Hell, I didn't either." she says exasperatedly. "I had no clue who he was when we met and started dating."

"I don't believe that he doesn't know who you are for a second." Sebastian says almost angrily. "The Herondales are all fucking snakes and liars. He is probably just with you so he can get to your father." Sebastian straightens up a little then and huffs out a humorless laugh. "And what do you think is going to happen when your father finds out who you are with? What do you think Jonathan Herondale will do when he finds out who _you_ are? Huh? He will kill you."

"Sebastian." Clary says sternly and with force. "Just stop." She waits for him to close his mouth and makes sure he is listening before she speaks. "He knows who I am." she says flatly. "And my parents and his know that we are together."

His face first goes from surprise to shock and then to either anger or fierce concern. She couldn't be sure.

He then reaches both of his hands out and places them on the tops of both of her arms and grabs hold of them. He dips his head down to directly in front of hers and looks straight into her eyes. "Are you insane, Clary? It will never work out. And when it doesn't, the relationship, if that's what you could call it, between your two families will get infinitely worse. This is the dumbest thing you have ever done." His grip tightens on her arms and she narrows her eyes at him and starts to squirm a little. "I love you, Clary. Why can't you see that? Why are you running around with Jonathan Herondale?"

"Let go of me, Sebastian." she says harshly to him through her now clenched teeth. "I don't need you telling me what you think about my life and the decisions I make along with everyone else."

He doesn't let go of her and says with finality, "Come on. I am taking you home."

"Let go of her." Clary hears a deeply dangerous voice say close by her. She turns her head and sees that Jace is coming up beside her and his face is a mask of rage. His eyes are trained on his hands that are gripping her upper arms tightly and there is a vein pulsing in his neck that shows just how angry he is. "Now." he says reiterating his statement and his left hand starts to drift towards the knife that he keeps in his pocket.

Clary looks back up to Sebastian and sees that his face is a similar sort of blistering angry that Jace's is. She sort of expected him to cower away a little but instead, he met Jace's eyes with the same intensity that Jace had in his eyes. Sebastian slowly lets go of Clary's arms and Jace slides his arm around her waist and pulls her to him and a little behind his side in a sort of protective stance. "It's okay, Jace." she says to him trying to diffuse the very tense situation. "Sebastian was just concerned for me."

"Well he should mind his own _fucking_ business and keep his fucking hands to himself if he wants to keep them." Jace says while looking directly into his eyes.

Even though the look Jace is giving Sebastian is enough to make Clary cringe away in fear, Sebastian surprisingly stands his ground and doesn't budge while keeping his eyes on him. "I swear to God, you piece of shit..." Sebastian starts to say when Jordan shows up behind him.

"It's time for you to let this go." Jordan says to Sebastian and places his hand on his shoulder in a sort of hard yet calming way. "Your boss is watching."

Clary then steals a glance over her shoulder at his boss and sure enough, he is watching the exchange with a worried look on his face. She looks back to Sebastian and steps out from behind Jace and reaches up on the tips of her toes. She gently places a kiss on Sebastian's cheek and he seems to snap out of the death glare that he was still giving Jace and look down to her as she lowers herself back onto the floor. His face quickly warps from anger to concern as his eyes meet hers. Before he can say anything, she turns and grabs Jace's hand and starts to walk away. She has to grip his hand as tight as she can and almost doesn't get him to move until she tugs on him a little.

By the time they reach their table in the back corner of the restaurant, she can feel in his grip that he has barely relaxed. She lets go of his hand to pull out her chair to sit down but Jace seems to snap out of it and hurries over to pull it out for her. He then takes his seat and looks back over to where Sebastian's table is. She follows his eyes and sees that Sebastian has barely regained his composure as he glares over at them and sits down at his table.

Just then, their waiter shows up and smiles warmly at them. "I'd like to have a partition put up." Jace says to him before he can ask them if they would like anything to drink. "I want to be away from prying eyes."

"Yes, sir." the waiter says quickly. "I'll have them set that up for you right away." He turns around and disappears quickly. When she looks back at Jace, he is looking at her. "I really want to kill him right now." Jace says seriously and Clary reaches across the small table and grabs his fist that is clenched while resting on top of the table. "Babe." she says gaining his attention. "He was only concerned about me. He asked me to marry him a little over a week ago, remember? He would never really hurt me."

"That's not what it looked like when he was grabbing your arms...which are red from his hands." His eyes look pointedly to the tops of her arms and she looks down to see that he is right. There are red hand marks around the tops of her arms from where Sebastian had gripped her.

"This is nothing, Jace." she tells him and rubs her arms. "I'm fair skinned. All you have to do is brush against me and my skin gets all red."

"That doesn't make me feel any better. Every time I look at you, all I see are those marks." he says through his tightly clenched teeth.

"Jace. You should know now that I am very capable of handling people like him myself." she tells him in a reassuring manor. "Sometimes I think you forget who I am. My father had me take mixed martial arts classes all throughout my childhood and into my late teens. Why do you think my father's men are scared of me?" she asks him with a coy smile. He seems to be relaxing a little so she continues. "I used to practice on all of them. My father only let me stop taking classes when I consistently took his best men down over and over again. It's not just my name they are afraid of." Clary gives him a knowing smile and he can't help but smile back at her a little. "I promise, babe. I am perfectly fine." she reassures him.

"Okay. But if he _ever_ touches you again..." Jace says but Clary cuts him off.

"Then I will take care of it and then my father will want to get in on the action."

"I don't want to be third in line to kick his ass." Jace says with a small pout. "It takes all the fun out of it if he is already been beaten down repeatedly."

Clary lets out a small laugh and then laces her fingers in his where his hand has relaxed out of the tight fist it was making. "Maybe you could get him like a couple of weeks after the first two beatings. You know, when he isn't expecting it."

Jace gives her a coy smile that reaches all of the way to his eyes and says, "I like the way you think." and then leans across the small table. His free hand snakes into the hair at the nape of her neck and his fingers pull her toward him. Their lips connect and he feels that tingly sensation all over him that he feels when they kiss. Her lips are soft and gentle yet commanding as they slide against his. She pulls back a little and he opens his eyes to find hers looking right into his with that look of pure love that he has come to recognize.

His kiss has it's desired effect as Clary's eyes cut over to where Sebastian is. He follows her eyes and sees Sebastian glaring daggers at him and he can't help himself. He smiles slyly to Sebastian whose face immediately turns red with anger and then leans forward to kiss her on the cheek and runs his fingers down her neck like he knows she loves. Her body reacts and she shivers a little with desire before looking back to him. "You shouldn't do that to me in public." she says with warning to him.

"And why is that?" he asks with a devious smile, already knowing the answer.

"You know why." she says lowly.

"No. I'm not sure I do." he replies playfully.

She rolls her eyes but there is a smile on her lips. "Because that turns me on so much."

"Well I knew that." Jace says knowingly. "I just fail to see why me turning you on would be a problem."

"It's a problem because it makes me want to jump your bones in the middle of a crowded restaurant."

"Once again, I fail to see how that is a problem." he says deviously and she smiles and gives him a small laugh just when the two waiters show up with a folding partition. They quickly stretch it out and it closes them into their own little world in the far corner of the restaurant. He waves the waiters away when they are done and then leans back into her. He can never seem to get enough of her. They kiss for a while and when she finally pulls back, her cheeks are flushed. The color makes her eyes stand out even more than they usually do and it somehow makes her even more beautiful. "You are so incredibly beautiful." he murmurs without even thinking.

Her blush deepens and she looks down at her hands for a moment while tucking some hair behind her ear before looking back up at him. "Thanks." she tells him just as the waiter peeks around the partition. "Are you ready to order?" he nervously asks them.

Clary looks like she is about to say no as she reaches for her menu but Jace quickly says "Yes." When Clary looks up at him in question, he says, "You trust me, right?" She gives him a nod and he looks back up to the waiter and orders two Alaskan caught halibut with crumbled goat cheese on top. She furrows her brows at him and he chuckles a little just as the waiter turns and leaves.

"Seriously?" she asks him once he is gone. "That sounds...not so good."

"Trust me." he says a little seriously. "I promise that although it sounds like an odd combination that couldn't possibly be anything but gross, it is actually insanely good."

She narrows her eyes at him for a moment before conceding. "Okay. I trust you. But if it's gross, I get to order the duck."

Jace's eyes go wide and he leans away from her as far as his chair will let him. "That's not fair. You know how I feel about ducks." he says seriously.

Clary smiles widely and lets out a loud laugh. "I think you made your feelings towards ducks very clear during our walk through the park three days ago." she says teasing him. "I mean, who the hell is afraid of ducks?!" She starts to laugh again and he narrows his eyes at her.

"I had a very traumatic experience with a rabid duck when I was five. He chased me until he caught me and then bit my butt so hard he drew blood."

"He probably wouldn't have if you hadn't been going through your 'naked phase'. I wondered why you were naked in that story. Now after talking to you mom, it all makes sense after she told me about your tendency to streak." she says through her laughs as a few tears spring free of her eyes. "I would give you everything out of my bank account to see that again."

"I'm glad you find that so funny." Jace says dryly and Clary detects the undertone of bitterness. She slows her laughter and then stands up and takes a small step around the table and opens Jace's arms. She wraps them around her waist and then places herself in his lap. "I'm sorry, babe." she tells him. "I didn't mean to laugh so much."

He looks sourly up at her with a small pout and she smiles at his upset face. Her hand comes up and she trails her finger across his cheek and then leans her head down and presses her lips against his. His lips are hesitant at first but he quickly melts into her. His arms tighten where she put them on her waist and their kiss becomes heated quickly. His tongue pushes into her mouth and she pushes hers into his and angles her body more into his. Her fingers dig into his hair and then someone clears their throat.

They break away from each other but Clary doesn't move from her spot on Jace's lap. "What is it?" she asks with a little annoyance clear in her voice. She looks up and sees that it is Jordan.

"Sebastian wants to speak with you." he tells her.

"No fucking way." Jace says as his hands that were grabbing her waist turn into fists.

"Now is not the best time." Clary says.

"I just want to apologize for grabbing you." she hears Sebastian's voice say from the other side of the partition.

She sighs heavily and then looks back to Jace. "Just let him say his peace and then we can get back to our night." she says quietly to him. He really looks like he wants to tell her 'no' but thinks better of it after a few seconds. He needs to let her handle her own business and he seems to understand this. He lets go of her waist and she bends down and kisses him one more time before standing and nodding her head to Jordan and Sebastian steps around the partition.

His eyes lock with hers and he seems to refuse to look at Jace. He steps closer to her and his eyes soften as he looks at her. "I'm sorry, Clary." he says quietly where only she can hear. "I shouldn't have grabbed you like that." His eyes involuntarily travel down to her arms and he sees the red marks that his hands left on her arms. His eyes turn remorseful and he seems to curse inwardly at himself by the look that crosses his face. "Shit, Clary. I really am sorry." he says again and he reaches his hand out to the red mark on her left arm unconsciously.

Before his fingers reach her, Clary steps back and Jordan steps forward and grabs his shoulder and pulls him back a little. "Would you stop, Jordan?" Sebastian says indignantly. "You know I'm not going to hurt her."

"Is that what you told yourself before you grabbed her and marked her up?" Jordan says in a snarky tone. Sebastian visibly flinches back and his eyes drop to the ground. Clary feels Jace's presence behind her before she feels his soft fingers rest over her shoulders and slide down her arms a little to smooth over the red areas there. "You said your peace, now leave." Jace says in a very serious tone. Sebastian finally looks at Jace and his eyes close off. He looks to Clary one last time with remorse and then turns and leaves.

"Fucking hell." Clary says as she turns around in Jace's arms when she can no longer see Sebastian. "That was unbelievably awkward."

"Now. Where were we?" Jace says in an effort to soothe Clary's mind. She smiles seductively at him while her hands start to slide up his chest and neck and her fingers dig into his hair on the back of his neck. "I think we were right about here..." she says and then pressed her lips against his.

* * *

 _The following morning..._

Clary rolls out of bed and slides the black slacks and purple blouse on that she was wearing the day before and then turns around to see Jace watching her from his spot on the bed. "If I didn't have business to attend to today as well, then I don't think I could let you go." Jace says and then sticks out his bottom lip. She gives him a laugh before leaning over and kissing him passionately for a minute. When she starts to pull away, she has to reach around and unlock his hands from around her. He lets out a frustrated groan and she chuckles a little as she walks towards the door. "I'll be back after your dinner with Alec." she tells him as she grabs her bag from beside the bedroom door. "I hope that it goes well for you."

"Me too." he says seriously as he falls back onto the bed. "I don't want to have to cut him out of my personal life. It would be hard to keep our relationship professional after being so close all of these years."

"I know." Clary says as she turns to face him again. "I really have to go. I promise we can talk all about it later. Sorry."

"It's fine." he tells her. "Go before you get in trouble. I don't want to give your father another reason to hate me."

"I love you." she says with a soft smile as she backs out of the bed room.

"I love you more." he tells her with the same soft smile and hers gets bigger.

"Not possible." she murmurs before she disappears out of the room.

The moment he hears his front door shut, Jace jumps up and walks to his bathroom where he takes a long shower. When he is done, he makes his way to his closet where he quickly dresses in a suit and fixes his hair. On his way out of his door, he picks up his phone and hurriedly dials Aline. She is the person he calls when he wants to find out everything there is to know about someone. She picks up on the third ring with a "Well hello. I didn't think you would call me again for another 2 weeks like usual."

"This isn't about a potential hire." he tells her. Every month she investigates any potential hires and gives him updates on other people that he tells her to. "I want to know everything about a man named Sebastian Verlac. He is one of Valentine Morgenstern's men."

"Whoa." she says cautiously on the other end of the line. "You should go through your father when it comes to the Morgensterns. I don't want to get caught in the middle of anything."

"Don't worry Aline." he reassures her as he steps out of his penthouse. Max is back today and he gives him a tight smile as he leads the way to the elevator. "This is personal and has nothing to do with business."

"But if he is one of Morgenstern's guys, then isn't it a little of both?"

"No. This is purely personal." he tells her. "He is the ex-boyfriend of my girlfriend and I want to know everything. Down to when he lost his first tooth."

She sighs loudly into the phone and then says, "Alright. I'll do what I can. You know how tightly Valentine keeps his men under wraps, but I will find out everything I can."

"Thanks Aline." he says before he ends the call just as the elevator doors open up. Jace steps in followed by Max and when they reach the lobby, Max finally asks him, "What was that about?"

"Clary's ex." he admits as he makes his way to the awaiting SUV. "He grabbed her last night when we ran into him at dinner and now I want to know all of his vulnerable and weak spots so I can go after him if necessary."

Max shrugs and says, "Sounds reasonable." and opens the door for him.

"Let's go check that shipment that came into Hodge Starkweather's today." Jace tells his driver who nods and starts to move almost immediately. He isn't supposed to check but there is a special package on that truck that he wants to make sure is there. When they get to Hodge's store, Jace is surprised to find his delivery guy waiting out back with their shipment in the truck. "Why isn't this product being moved into the store?" he asks angrily of the delivery man.

"The door is locked and no one will come to it." he answers as his voice shakes a little.

Jace looks up to the back door and begins to grow angry. This isn't the first or second delivery he has taken and he should know better than to make the delivery wait out in the open like that. "Key." Jace says sternly and holds his hand out to Max who keeps them. Max fumbles around for a few seconds before producing the correct one and handing it to Jace. He quickly slips the key in the lock and turns it. When the door swings open, all of the lights in the store are off. Everything is still in it's place but something feels seriously off to Jace. He walks through the store, still finding no one, and then rushes out back to where his men are. "Put the goods in the store." he tells the delivery man who hurriedly nods his head in understanding. "Take me to Hodge's home."

"Yes, sir." his driver replies as they hurry into the SUV. Only five minutes later they arrive at his humble apartment building. The SUV behind Jace's quickly empties and he watches as some of his men venture into the building. Jace can't risk being seen there if the police are for some reason watching. If Hodge has to 'disappear', he can't be seen with him. A couple of minutes pass when his phone buzzes. He brings the phone to his ear and hears on the other end one of his men say that his apartment is completely empty and there is no sign of Hodge or his family.

* * *

 _Across the city..._

Clary hurriedly showered and braided her damp hair around her head and over one of her shoulders. It would be beautifully wavy by the end of the day. She dressed in a tight black dress that hugged her perfectly and grabbed her long dark red fitted trench coat and slipped it on before hurrying out the door of the mansion. Her father was already going to be mad at her because she was fifteen minutes behind schedule and he was a stickler for being on time. Speaking of..."Hey dad." she answers her ringing phone. "I know I am a little behind..."

"That man is making you slack on your duties." he says sternly, clearly referring to Jace.

"No, it's actually my fault." she tells him thinking back to this morning when she couldn't control herself. "I...uh...forgot to set my alarm. I am getting in the car now." she says as she climbs into the back of one of the blacked out SUVs.

"Good. I don't want to hear that you are going to be late to our lunch with your brother and the D.A." he warns her.

"Don't worry. I'll make up the time." she reassures him. "I love you, daddy."

She can hear him groan on the other end of the line, knowing she is trying to get him to not be so upset with her by telling him she loves him and calling him 'daddy'. It works, just like it always does. When he speaks again, his tone is less angry and considerably softer. "I love you too, sweetie." he says and then the line goes dead. "Who is first on the schedule?" she asks Jordan as she hops in the back seat.

"Sorrentino was first on the list followed by Williams, but Hodge Starkweather called and asked if he could be seen first thing this morning. Something about some problem with his Manhattan store he needs to attend to." Jordan says looking down at his blackberry.

"That's fine." she tells him. "I am already late and it's not like any of them are going anywhere knowing that I am coming. They'll wait all day if they have to."

"Yes, ma'am." the driver says as they take off.

When they arrive at Hodge's store, Clary walks in with a smile on her face. She always loved the way he responded to her. She can always read the undeniable fear mixed with appreciation in his eyes as he looks at her. "So..." she says as she pushes the door open to his store front and her eyes land on him. "I hear you wanted to move up our time. Why is that? You know that I am a busy woman. It is a good thing I was feeling generous this morning."

"Y...yes." Hodge stammers. "I did. I have a few problems at my store in Manhattan and..."

"Yes, yes." Clary says disinterestedly. "You need to take care of them. What _I_ am asking is why is this my problem and why did you so desperately need to move up our time and throw off my schedule?" she asks him while her eyes grow tight. She loves to mess with him like this. It is so entertaining to watch his adam's apple bob with his hard swallows and the beads of sweat form on his brow from stress and fear. He brings his hands up and starts to nervously wring them together as his eyes fall away from hers. "I...I.." he starts to stammer again and she rolls her eyes. "I don't care." she says in an annoyed voice. "Let's just get this over with so I can move on with my life and get out of this smelly shop."

"Yes, ma'am." he says with a hint of relief in his voice. He turns and walks behind the counter when a young girl, maybe 8 years old runs out from the back followed by a girl who looks to be about 13 as she tries to catch her.

Clary looks over to them and smiles widely at the two young women. The younger girl was giggling and holding a cell phone as she ran to Hodge and grabbed onto his leg and stuck her tongue out at the older girl. "Give me my phone back you little brat." the older one growls.

"I didn't know your family was here." Clary says in a falsely happy tone. She smiles widely at the two girls as they finally look up to see her and two of her men there with her. The older one grabs the younger one and wraps her arms around her little sister and presses her back to her front in a protective manner. "Your oldest looks so much like you!" she says to Hodge as she walks over to them. She raises her hand to the teenager's hair and tucks it behind her ear. She shies away from Clary's touch as Hodge grows incredibly nervous at the scene in front of him. "She has your hair color and your blue eyes. She is very beautiful. What is your name?" she asks her.

The teenager's eyes cut over to her father who gives her a nervous nod and then she looks back to Clary and answers, "Rebecca."

"What a beautiful name for a beautiful girl." Clary says and then crouches down close to the ground. "And what is your name?" she asks the younger one. "My name is Amelia." the little one answers.

"That is also a beautiful name. Very classic names. Do they have any meaning?"

"Momma says I was named after my great grandma." Amelia says with a small lisp.

"I was named after my grandmother too." Clary tells her and she gives Clary a small smile. She stands back up and sees the nervous and somewhat hateful look on the older Rebecca's face. "She looks fiesty." she remarks with a chuckle at her. "I like that."

Rebecca only glares harder at Clary and she has to let out a small laugh at her bravery and the intensity of her angry stare. "Take your sister back to your mother." Hodge orders Rebecca. She lets go of Clary's gaze and nods as she takes her little sister's hand and pulls her to the back of the store. Once they disappear around a corner, she turns back to face Hodge. "What beautiful young girls you have." she tells him conversationally and then drops her voice lowly like she is telling him something in secret. "Although I would watch out for your older girl. She reminds me of me when I was her age. Full of anger at the world and ready to take on everyone and everything that got in my way."

"Yes, she is very much acting like a teenager now a days." Hodge says as he bundles up a wad of cash that he took from the cash drawer. "Full of angst."

"I can see that." Clary says in an amused tone. "Though she would do well to control it a little better. She could get herself into some trouble with those expressive eyes of hers."

Hodge clearly understands the warning in her statement and gives her an understanding nod. He reaches out his hand to offer her the money and Jordan steps between them and takes the money before he can get too close to Clary. "I'm glad that you had the appropriate funds ready today. That makes everything so much more pleasant, don't you think?" she asks him.

"It does." he replies as he wipes the sweat off of his brow.

"I guess this is the point where I tell you that I will see you in two weeks." she says and he nods once again. Just as she turns to leave, her phone in her pocket rings loudly. She stops and fishes is out and a wide grin breaks across her face when she see's Jace's name pop up. "It's my boyfriend." she says excitedly to Hodge as she brings the phone up to her ear. "Hey babe." she says very sweetly. After a few seconds and hearing the tone in his voice, her smile fades slightly as she tries to keep her emotions masked. "Don't worry, babe. I'll take care of everything until you get here. Love you." and then she slides the phone back in her pocket.

"Hodge, I can't for the life of me remember what today's date is." she says thoughtfully.

"It's November 11th." he responds a little impatiently.

"Wow." she says with mock excitement. "I love the holiday season. Especially Christmas. When I was a little girl, I was always worried that I had been naughty and Santa wouldn't bring me any gifts. I would always go over and over every bad decision I made throughout the year and try to determine if they were enough to get me put on Santa's naughty list. One year, I actually got a lump of coal in my stocking. I had lots of presents but I had that one lump of coal in my stocking instead of the usual candy that I got. I tried so hard to figure out which bad decision it was that I had made that year that had earned me that lump of coal, but never did. It almost drove me crazy trying to figure it out."

She then looks pointedly at Hodge and takes two steps closer to him. "Do you think that you will be on Santa's naughty list this year?" she asks him curiously. "Have you made any bad decisions that would earn you a lump of coal?"

Jordan and her other guy seem to know that something is wrong and start to close in on Hodge. One moving slightly to block the front door and Jordan angling his body to catch him if he tries to run towards the back of the store. Hodge's eyes dart nervously between the two men before landing back on Clary. "I don't think so." he says very nervously.

"You mean you can't think of one little thing at all that you might have done to be put on the naughty list?" Clary asks him curiously but with an edge to her sweet voice. He swallows roughly as he seems to figure out that she knows something and he shakes his head 'no' quickly. "I'm glad to hear that Hodge." she tells him. "That makes my job a little easier knowing that you trying to run out on us and disappear is something that you don't think is wrong. My father, on the other hand, would very much disagree with you though."

"I don't know what you are talking about." Hodge says quickly and with as much innocence as he can muster.

"Sure you do." Clary says as she walks closer to him. Jordan is suddenly standing there on one side with the other guy, Mark, coming up on his other side and closing him in. Clary raises her hand and trails her fingers up the front of his shirt. She lifts it to pat him three times on the cheek a little roughly and then her demeanor changes drastically. Her eyes narrow at him as she steps even closer to him and puts her face right in his. "I fucking _hate_ liars, Hodge. And you are lying to me."

"I'm...I'm not." he says pleadingly. "I swear. I have no clue what you are talking about."

"So your apartment just up and emptied itself on it's own? Is that what you want me to believe?" she asks him as her voice rises with anger. "Do I look as stupid as you think I am?"

"No ma'am." he says hurriedly. "Not at all."

"Then I suggest you stop treating me like you think I am because it is _really_ pissing me off." Her lips become tight and her words clipped. There is a small shuffling of feet and a few small screams of fright and anger and then some more of her men drag Hodge's wife and his two daughters into the front with them. "They were trying to go out the back." Raphael, one of her father's oldest hired hands tells her. "Their car is packed with suitcases."

She turns her angry gaze back to Hodge and tisks him before she says, "You see, Hodge. I am not as stupid as you apparently thought I was. _You_ , on the other hand, are pretty fucking stupid to think that you could get away with it. And now, because of you, I have to rearrange my whole day and I _hate_ when I have to do that."

"But...but how?" he asks, clearly confused as to how she found this out. Her face relaxes then and a smile pulls up the corners of her lips. "My boyfriend. You have actually met him before." she tells him. "He's absolutely wonderful." She then turns to where Hodge's daughters and wife are and walks over to the oldest girl with a lovesick smile on her face and throws her arm over the girl's shoulders. She pulls her out of the grasp of Raphael and pulls her into her side like she is talking to her best friend. "He is absolutely gorgeous, Rebecca. He has blonde hair and the most beautiful smile. Every girl that has ever laid eyes on him has wanted him...and he is all mine now."

She pulls Rebecca to a stop in the middle of the shop and turns to face her while excitedly grabbing her hands. Rebecca is very clearly uncomfortable as her eyes keep darting nervously to her mother and father who are watching with extreme worry in their eyes. Just the way Clary likes it. "And oh my gosh, Rebecca..." Clary continues excitedly, "...he is like, the _BEST_ kisser in the entire world. He does this thing with his tongue where he flicks it slightly and it sends shivers down my spine. Have you ever kissed a boy before?"

"Y...y..yes." she answers nervously.

"Wasn't it amazing?!" Clary asks her.

"It was okay." she tells her.

"That's because most boys your age don't know how to kiss yet. I promise they will get better as you get older." she says like a loving older sister. "Just like their hands do. They don't shake as much when they go to cop a feel under your shirt or..."

Hodge's wife interrupts. "That's enough." she says sternly to Clary. She looks up and raises her eyebrows at the oldest woman in surprise and appreciation. "What's the problem, Mrs. Hodge?" she asks her. "I am just trying to tell her that it gets better. You know...giving her older sisterly advice since she doesn't have one. Jeez." she exclaims as she looks back to Rebecca. "Is your mom always this up tight?"

Rebecca, clearly not knowing what to do, afraid of angering either her mother or Clary, just shrugs her shoulders non-commitally. "Good answer." Clary praises her. "I wouldn't have dared say anything bad about my mom to her face when I was your age. She would have killed me!" Clary lets out a slightly off kilter laugh and then her phone pings with a notification. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and looks down and sees that it is her men down the block asking her if she said it was okay for Jace to come down there. She sends them a 'yes' and tucks her phone back in her pocket.

"Guess what?" she says to Rebecca. "You get to meet my boyfriend! He is right down the road. You are in for one hell of a treat. I really meant it when I said that every woman that ever saw him thought he was gorgeous." She releases Rebecca and tells her to go stand with her mother. She walks over to the reflective surface of a television in the corner of the store and smooths down the hairs that escaped her braid. She pulls out her tinted lip balm and smooths some over her lips and rubs them together. She then spins around with a whirl and makes her way back over to Hodge. "How do I look?" she asks him with a bright smile.

Hodge, who now looks like he is about to throw up, says, "You look beautiful." in a small voice.

She smiles with mock shyness at him and looks down like she is trying to hide her blushing face. "Awww. Thanks Hodge."

This kind of behavior is what her father taught her. People on the outside watching would think she was some sort of bipolar sociopath when in reality, she was just very skilled at what she does. The wild mood swings and the mock friendliness contrasted with the appearance of uncontrolled anger puts them on edge and was one of her first lessons when she started learning the business. You take something they love, like Rebecca, and pull it away from them and put it under your control, like she did a moment ago, and give them the implication that you wouldn't think twice about killing what they love. Her father would never kill an innocent child but they certainly don't need to know that. Although, she is pretty sure that Hodge's days were now numbered. He's created too many problems now. You never directly threaten them and instead, threaten what they love. You slap them around and leave them with a reminder that they are not to be messed with in the form of a thinly veiled threat against their family.

She hears a few loud rumbles and looks up and out of the store to see two SUVs pull up out front. "There he is now!" Clary says excitedly. "Oh Hodge, you are in for _such_ a surprise!" He furrows his brows in confusion at her when the first door opens up to the SUV and the Herondale's men start to pour out. Hodge apparently recognizes them as his face turns confused and scared at the same time. "But...but those are Herondale's men. Aren't you angry? They aren't supposed to be on your side of the city." he says with pure worry in his voice.

"That's what makes this so great!" she tells him. "Now that Jonathan Herondale is my boyfriend, the boundaries have become a little more blurred."

"Wait...what?" he asks angrily. "You're dating Jona..."

His words are cut off by Jace swinging the door to the shop open and stepping in as he takes off his sunglasses. His eyes immediately land on Clary and a warm smile turns his perfectly full lips up. "Babe!" Clary says loudly and walks over to him and throws her arms around his neck.

"God, I've missed you." he says as his hands wrap around her small frame and he presses her body to his. He brings his mouth down on hers and they share a quick yet passionate kiss before pulling back and looking at her again. "I am almost glad that he decided to try and run because I get to see you again so soon."

"Awww, babe. That's so sweet." she says softly to him and kisses him once again before letting him go and turning to face Hodge. When she sees the look on his face, she can't help but laugh a couple of times. He is in complete shock and is almost shaking with horror as he realizes that there is no where to hide now. He obviously thought he could play them against each other. He should have known better than to try and do that.

Jace looks over to Hodge and a look settles on his face that Clary has never seen before. It is pure anger and scary and...a huge turn on. He looks like a deadly lion as it gets ready to pounce and kill it's prey. ' _He is fucking glorious'_ she thinks to herself.

Clary smiles wickedly and turns around and hurries over to where Rebecca is. She is looking at him with the same appreciation that every woman does except her face is tinged with worry which is clearly for her father's safety. "I told you he was super hot." Clary says in a loud whisper to the teenager and then turns back to face Jace.

"I know this is an unusual situation, boys," Jace starts out saying to the Mogenstern and Herondale men who are as pulled tight as a string on a bow, "..but lets just all pretend to be on the same side for now."

"You heard the man." she adds on with pure authority as she looks at her men who were eyeing the Herondales' men. "I know that this is new but I am sure that it will be happening a lot now that Jace and I are together. I am sure we will all become great friends in no time."

"You're right, baby." Jace adds on as he looks over to her and smiles. "We could even go get some beers after all is said and done."

"Great idea, babe." she tells him back as she runs her fingers over her collar bone and drawing his eyes to the bare skin exposed there. She can see lust pass over his eyes for a moment before he regains his control and looks back to Hodge. "Now, where was I?" Jace asks Hodge who is now squirming in the grip of Jordan and Mark. "Oh yeah. That's right." he says like he just remembered something vitally important. "You were trying to run away with your tail tucked between your legs like the spineless coward you are."

"Please, don't make my family watch." Hodge pleads with Jace.

"But then they won't see what happens when you act like a coward." Jace replies. "But I am an understanding man; or so I have been told."

"You are _very_ understanding, babe." Clary adds on with a twisted smile and deadly excitement in her voice. Jace catches on quickly to what she is doing and smiles twistedly back at her. It's the Bonnie and Clyde routine. The two lovesick bandits who murdered without restraint to get what they wanted. They were so consumed with each other that nothing else mattered to them. All they wanted was to make the other happy and that included satisfying their mutual blood lust.

"I am, aren't I?" Jace states with a superior tone. "That is why I will let your daughters go downstairs with those lovely men over there. What are your names?" he asks Clary's men.

"This is Raphael and this is Jacob." Clary says brightly, introducing them like they are at a party.

"They can go in the back with Raphael and Jacob and maybe play some card games. Wouldn't that be nice?" Jace says to Hodge.

"No!" Hodge's wife says worriedly as they pull the two girls away from her. "Joseph. Help them with Mrs. Starkweather." Jace says and one of his men steps forward and grabs hold of her as she struggles to hold onto her daughters.

"Don't hurt them! Leave them alone!" she shouts as they pull the girls out of her sight.

"Calm down, Mrs. Hodge." Clary says soothingly to the slightly hysterical woman. She steps closer and runs her hand down her hair in a comforting manor that completely freaks the older woman out. "They are going to be just fine. I promise."

"Fuck you and your promises!" she spits out angrily at Clary and she raises her brows in shock before laughing. "Whoo!" Clary says with a hoot. "Your wife has bigger balls than you, Hodge! Maybe she took yours when you two got married."

"It sure looks that way." Jace says with a smile. "That's too bad too. You are really going to need them." His voice has dropped with a deadly promise as he steps closer to the man. Jace towers over him at 6'2 to Hodge's 5'9 frame. Without taking his eyes off of Hodge, Jace says "Clary, baby. Can you call your dad? I would like to take Mr. Starkweather to a place a little more secluded. Somewhere his screams won't draw any attention."

"No problem, babe. I know just the place." she says with a wicked smile and pulls out her phone.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!_

 _Btw, I squealed with excitement when I saw that this story reached over a hundred followers. Y'all are seriously THE BEST EVER! Thank y'all so much for taking time out to read my story. It **seriously** means the world to me!_


	13. Chapter 13

**I know I said that everything in my life was getting back to normal and I would be able to write more...but I was wrong. Two days after I posted the last chapter, my son decided to break his arm so severely that it required a hospital stay and two surgeries. His whole arm is now in a cast and he is unable to do a lot of things for himself. Hence...me not being able to write as much. I will do my best to write more. I swear it! But for now, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Clary circles the bound Hodge while the sound of her heels clicking on the hard floor echo off of the walls around them. She brought him back to her father's cigar store and tied him to the pole he was tied to just a few weeks ago. "It feels like deja vu, doesn't it Hodge?" she says to him as she stops in front of him.

He is still looking down at the ground where his eyes have been trained since Jordan and Max dragged him in the back door. The look of utter defeat on his face greatly displeases her. The Morgenstern persona would prefer it if he looked hopeful. Like there was something he could do or say to create some way out of the mess he was in. Clary's voice hardens and turns as cold as ice as she says, "I asked you a question, Hodge."

"I guess it does." Hodge replies solemnly.

"You know I hate coming down here in this drafty cellar. It takes me a week to get the old musty smell out of my clothes." she tells him with a pout.

"Here, baby." Jace says as he walks away from the far corner of the room where he was watching and takes his suit jacket off. He comes over to her and slides her fur coat off her shoulders and replaces it with his. He extends his hand that is holding her coat out to one of his men and says, "Take Miss. Morgenstern's coat out to the car."

"Yes sir." the man replies and takes her coat over his arm and walks back out of the cellar.

"Thank you so much, babe." she tells him as she turns to face him. She brings her arms up and drapes them around his neck and locks them behind him. "You are such a great guy."

"And you are the most amazing woman I have ever met." he whispers loudly to her and pulls her body flush with his. Their lips connect in a kiss that is as fiery as her red hair from the moment their lips touch. Clary's body reacts in a shudder as Jace slips his tongue in her mouth. She lets out a little squeaky moan that he matches with a low and quiet grunt of his own. Although they are trying to be quiet, in the stillness of the room, their sounds echo off of the hard walls and are amplified when they reach the couple again.

Her hands dive into his hair and she grabs on as she tries to suck in a deep breath through her nose while they kiss. Another intense few seconds pass before they finally pull apart from each other. He rests his forehead against hers while they both try to catch their breath. Both of their hearts are racing and they almost forget where they are and what they are doing.

Clary lowers herself off of the tips of her toes from kissing Jace and takes a small step back from him. "My God, I love you." she tells him with a lovesick smirk on her face.

"Not as much as I love you." he replies with a softness that doesn't fit the situation. She suspects that he let his Herondale persona slip for that split second and she melts a little from his honesty. Jace's eyes leave her and he looks over to Hodge who had looked up to watch their exchange. He can tell by the look in his eyes that he is confused and worried by what he just saw. Just the way he likes it. Jace doesn't like to be predictable.

"Father should be calling me back any minute now." Clary tells Hodge in a comforting manor; like this is good news for him. "He'll tell us what to do with you. Won't that be a relief? To stop the suspense that has been building and just know what is going to happen?" Her mood has swung again and now she is being the excited and mischievous girl that she was when she was younger. "Do you think I could maybe take your oldest daughter under my wing?" she asks thoughtfully. "I like her spunk and her tenacity. I could teach her everything I know and she could be like the little sister I never had. We would have so much fun together." she says with a huge smile and wistful look to her eyes. "We could braid each other's hair and talk about how far we've gone with boys..."

"You're fucking psycho!" she hears Hodge's wife yell from where she is being held behind her. "You won't touch my daughter."

Clary's eyes immediately turn from excited to pure fury as she spins and locks eyes with the older woman. Clary watches as fear settles onto her face when she sees the anger in her eyes. The sound of her heels clicking hard against the concrete floor once again fills the silent room as she closes the distance to the woman. When she gets within arms reach of the woman, she raises her right hand and pulls it back as far as she can and back hands Mrs. Starkweather across her face. The loud pop of the skin of Clary's hand crashing against the skin of the other woman's face fills the silent room.

After a second, she grabs the older woman's chin in her hand and digs her nails into her skin as she turns her to face her. Mrs. Starkweather's hands are already tied behind her back while men on either side of her hold her in place. "I dare you to say what you said again, you old dried up _bitch._ " Clary snares at her. "Let's see if you are even more stupid than you look. Call me psycho one more fucking time..."

Mrs. Starkweather doesn't say a word. Her eyes, although they are scared, show the defiance that she held in her voice only moments ago. This is no good for Clary. She will create problems if she isn't taught a lesson. Or better yet...

Clary smiles wickedly as a thought pops into her head and she releases her hard grip on the woman's face. Her nails have left little crescent marks in the skin on her face and she smiles even wider when she sees that. "I think I have a solution to our problem." Clary says with a triumphant smile as she spins to face Jace. "Losing Hodge would create problems for the both of our family's supplies and businesses, would it not?" she asks her boyfriend.

"It would. But not to so much so that it will stop me from killing him if I need to." Jace replies with a questioning tone. "What are you getting at, dear?"

"What if I told you there was a way to get rid of this problem." She gestures to the two Starkweathers while keeping her eyes on Jace. "And nothing would have to change with either of our families shipments and flow of supplies."

"I would tell you that I would love to hear that solution." he replies with intrigue.

Her smile grows impossibly wide when he says that. She then turns to Hodge, who is watching them with fear, and she smiles for a moment before turning her face into a serious look. "Hodge? Can I ask you a question?" she asks him.

"Yes." he replies simply.

"Whose idea was it to try and leave town?" Her eyes are trained hard on him and she watches him closely as he swallows roughly before he answers, "It was mine." but his eyes give him away. They dart to his wife behind Clary for just a split second before coming back to rest on her.

She shakes her head in disappointment at his answer. "You are lying to me, Hodge. Don't try to deny it." she tells him and he shakes his head hard. "I'm not lying." he says but his eyes betray him once again as they dart to his wife for a fraction of a second. "It was my idea."

"We both know that's not true." she says as she turns and faces Jace again. "Do you believe him, my love?"

"I don't believe I do." he says in an apologetic tone as he looks over to him.

"I swear!" Hodge shouts. "It was all me. All my idea!"

Clary very calmly turns back to face him and steps closer to him. She reaches out her hand and places it gently on his shoulder as she leans closely to him and speaks quietly to him. "Do you love your wife, Hodge?"

He looks at her with confusion and worry and says, "Very much so."

"Would you do anything for her?"

He looks a little nervous to answer that question but after a few moments says, "I would."

"Would you, perhaps...run away from your obligations to our families if she asked you to? Try to make a 'better life' for your family outside of the city and leave Mr. Herondale and I high and dry?"

"No. It was my idea." Hodge says hurriedly, finally seeing what she is getting at.

"I don't believe that for one second, Hodge." Clary says to him. "You don't have the balls for that." She then turns and looks at his wife. "Your wife...on the other hand, has huge gigantic balls. Ones that would make her think that her plan to run away would actually work."

"NO!" he shouts at her. "Leave her alone! It was my idea! All mine!"

Clary looks pointedly at her guard Mark and he pulls out a gag and places it over Hodge's mouth, silencing him. She then turns her full attention onto Mrs. Starkweather. The older woman's eyes are now alight with understanding and growing fear as Clary strolls casually over to stand in front of her. "You are proving to be a thorn in my boyfriend and I's hand. And do you know what you do with thorns when you get them in your hand?" she asks Mrs. Starkweather. The woman remains quiet. "You pick it out and you throw it in the trash." she says as she levels her voice dangerously at her.

Hodge's muffled screams of protest can be heard behind her but she doesn't spare him a glance. "I think it's time to teach your husband a lesson. Show him what happens when you try and run from your responsibilities and leave us to deal with the consequences." She steps back while keeping her eyes on her. "What do you think, baby?" she asks Jace without looking at him.

"I think you are brilliant." he says adoringly as her back comes into contact with his chest. His warm arms wrap around her and close her in. Clary's men have already started to pull out the industrial painter's plastic and spread it in layers over the floor in front of Hodge. Once that is done, her men and one of Jace's pulls Mrs. Starkweather forward and onto the plastic where they kick her legs and make her fall to her knees.

"Make it slow...but not too slow." Clary says as she looks at one of Jace's men who has pulled out a set of knives. "I want him to understand what will happen to his daughters if he should ever get another idea in his head to run again."

The man's eyes travel to Jace's face for approval and Jace nods his approval. The two of them turn away from the now horrified looking Hodge while his muffled screams fill the room and start to make thier way towards the back door of the cellar. "Let's go, babe." Clary says to Jace. "I've got an hour before I have to meet my dad, brother, and mother for lunch. That should be enough time to...have a snack." she says in a suggestive tone.

He smiles down at her with a look of awe and hunger in his golden eyes. "I'll try to make it that quick." he tells her. "I can't make any promises though because I have never been more turned on in my life than I am right now. You were amazing."

Just then as they step through the door, there is a loud and distinctly feminine scream of pain that comes from behind them. She glances behind her quickly and sees the front of Mrs. Starkweather's shirt starting to turn red with her own blood from a deep knife slash across her chest and she turns back around when the door shuts. "Well then I will just have to call my dad and tell him that I might be a few minutes late." she says as she turns and kisses Jace with passion before climbing into the back of one of his cars.

* * *

"Sorry I'm a little late, daddy." Clary tells her father as she arrives at their table in the small restaurant. She bends down and places a small kiss on his cheek and then turns to her mother beside her father and does the same to her.

This place is where her father likes to do some of his business. It is small but still upscale and offers privacy when need be. It is pretty full today with people trying to get in a good lunch before heading back to work. "Don't worry, Clarissa." the District Attorney, Michael Hernandez tells her. "I only just arrived a few minutes ago. It seems that we are both running behind today." He smiles a slightly unsettling smile at her as a shadow clouds his eyes. He always looks at her like she is a piece of juicy meat.

Clary walks around the table and places herself in between her brother and the district attorney where her father clearly wants her to sit. "Where is your beautiful wife, Michael?" Valentine asks the attorney.

He clears his throat and looks away from Clary as he says, "She wasn't feeling well so she stayed home."

"I hate to hear that." Jocelyn says sweetly to him. "I was looking forward to seeing her reaction to the painting I did for her."

"I am sure she will absolutely love it. She always loves everything you do." Michael tells her.

Clary looks over to Jonathan who had leaned slightly over to speak lowly to her. "How long do we have to be here again?" he asks her and she has to stifle a laugh.

"I hate this too." she whispers back to him as their parents make conversation with the D.A. "I hate that they only bring us along because his daughter is obsessed with you and your looks and wants to be friends with me because I am so amazing. They will probably force us to hang out with her. Where is she anyway?"

"She went to the bathroom like 10 minutes ago." Jonathan tells her. "I hope she fell in the toilet."

Clary can't stifle the giggle that bubbled up in her chest this time and it bursts out of her mouth gaining the attention of the others at the table. Clary quickly sits up and away from her brother and smooths her face out. "Sorry. Jonathan was just telling me a funny joke."

"That's alright, Clarissa." Michael tells her with a slimy smirk. "Your laugh is a wonderful thing to hear." He then looks over to Jonathan and says, "Why don't you tell it again and we can all laugh together."

"Yes, Jonathan." Clary says with a devious smile as she turns to him. "Do tell them the joke." He narrows his eyes at her and she knows that there will be payback for this. Jonathan is not the type of guy that runs around telling jokes to anyone. He is way too serious of a man for that. He can go back and forth with Clary with witty comebacks but that is the extent of his comedic talents.

"Um...I'm not sure if you would get it." he says nervously. "It's kind of complicated."

"I think we could manage to follow along." Valentine says in a sort of chastising tone. Clary is sure he doesn't appreciate him insinuating that the D.A. is unintelligent.

"Well, uh..." Jonathan starts out saying and Clary can't stop an amused smirk from spreading across her face. "There was this lawyer..." Jonathan stops what he is saying and looks up to see Michael's daughter walking back to the table. He takes the opportunity to change the subject. "Marisol! There you are! I thought you might have gotten lost." he jokes.

Her face brightens immensely at his attention and she blushes. "I just wanted to powder my nose." she says sweetly to him.

"And what a beautiful nose it is." Jonathan remarks with charm. She blushes even more and takes her place on the other side of Michael with Jocelyn on the other side.

"Thank you, Jonathan." she says a little seductively and Clary can't help but turn her head and roll her eyes away from the table. "Laying it on a little thick, don't you think?" Clary says lowly to her brother and he shrugs his shoulders before responding. "Kaelie and I broke up a few days ago. Apparently the trip to the Caribbean wasn't enough to save our relationship."

Clary turns almost completely in her seat to look at her brother then. Her eyes are sorrowful and apologetic. "I'm so sorry, Jonathan. I had no idea."

"That's because I have been laying low and sulking. I'm better now though. Deep down I knew it was inevitable."

"But you were with her for two years. I thought that she was the one for you." Clary says to him lowly.

"I used to think that too." Jonathan admits. "But I was wrong. Just like you and Sebastian. Everything looks good on paper but in reality, it just doesn't work quite right. There was something that always felt like it is missing."

Clary takes a deep breath and leans back over to her chair from where she had been leaning in close to her brother so they could talk quietly. "I know what you mean." she mumbles mostly to herself and reaches over and pats Jonathan's leg in camaraderie and understanding. Clary then turns her full attention back to the table in front of her as she can tell that the business part of the meal has started.

"There is the painting now!" Valentine says brightly and looks behind the D.A. to two men that are carrying a very large painting of central park with a heavy and thick and ornately carved frame around it. What can't be seen is the tens of thousands of dollars that are hidden inside of the large frame that serves as a bribe for him to 'look the other way'.

Michael turns around and smiles warmly as the two men set the painting down beside him. "It's exquisite!" he says as he studies the painting. "You are truly talented, Jocelyn."

"Thank you so much, Michael." she says in response.

"I know just the place for it." he says and turns and looks at Valentine who gives him a nod as if to say 'Yes. All of the money is there in the frame.'

"Now that that is settled," Jonathan says gaining the attention of everyone at the table, "I was just telling Clary that we should go out tonight and let lose a little. Would you like to join us, Marisol?" he says turning his attention to the woman that has always flirted shamelessly with him. She smiles brightly flashing her perfectly capped teeth and tosses her black hair over her shoulder before saying, "I'd love to, Jonathan."

'Well, I guess I'm going out dancing tonight' Clary says to herself as she lifts her foot and stomps on her brother's foot in annoyance with him. He knows she can't stand the girl. It's probably payback for trying to make him tell a joke.

When the conversation starts up again, Clary leans to her brother once again and says, "What the hell was that for?"

"I haven't gotten laid in almost a month." he says in response. "And she..." he nods pointedly at her because she had turned to look at him and he winks at her and gives her his panty-dropping smile, "...is more than willing to put out."

"Fair enough." she says shrugging. "But you owe me."

"Deal." he says and they both dive back into the conversation being held at the table.

* * *

 **-Jace**

"I'll show up after the dinner." Jace tells Clary over the phone.

"Alright." she says warmly. "Good luck and tell me how it goes."

"Thanks and I will. Love you."

"I love you too." her soft voice coos and he smiles as he hangs up the phone and tucks it into his pocket. He glances in the mirror one last time and smooths down his black button up shirt and the gray slacks he is wearing. He is meeting Alec at a more relaxed and less fancy restaurant that they have been going to since they were teenagers. It's a small Chinese place that has the best pot stickers in the western hemisphere. His mouth starts to water just thinking about them.

He takes a deep breath and turns and leaves his bathroom. It is almost time to meet and he needs to leave now if he isn't going to be late. He tosses a jacket over his shoulders and hurries out of his penthouse. By the time he gets to the restaurant, he doesn't have a minute to spare. He is surprised when he sees Alec dressed casually, which is incredibly rare because of his job and serious personality, and gives him a nod as he walks over to their usual table.

"You're early." Jace remarks as he reaches him. "You're usually running behind."

"I wanted to be here on time. Show you that this was important to me." Alec replies in a surprising admission. He has never been one to talk about his feelings.

Jace takes the seat across from Alec and hangs his jacket on the back of his chair. "I think this is the first time that I have ever felt a little awkward around you." Jace tells him.

"I know. I also know that it is my fault that you feel that way." Alec admits to him. That is another thing that Jace has always loved about him. His ability to admit when he is wrong and apologize for it.

"I thought that if anyone would be on my side and understand, it would have been you, Alec." Jace says to him; jumping right in to why they are here and having this awkward dinner in the first place. "Yes, she is a Morgenstern and I am a Herondale, but neither one of us is _just_ our names. We fell in love before we knew who the other one was and when we found out, we decided that it didn't matter. And if it doesn't matter to me, then it shouldn't matter to you."

"I know." Alec says softly. "You are completely right. It's just that...I want you to be happy and safe and with Clary being a Morgenstern, I am worried that it will end badly between you two and she will know too much. That her family could kill you because she will know so much about your business and where you go and what you do."

"I understand your concerns, Alec," Jace says a little tiredly, "...but it's easy for you to say that when the only time you spent with her, you were hurling insults at her instead of trying to get to know her. She stuck her neck out for me to her father. He tried to shoot me when he found out about us and she stepped in front of me to protect me without hesitation. That was enough to prove to me that she really does love me. That she is willing to do anything for me...just like I am willing to do anything for her. You know me, Alec. I have never spent longer than a week with a woman. And when I did, it was solely because of the sex. With Clary...the sex is just one tiny portion of our relationship. I love her, Alec. I need you to understand that and accept it."

Alec has been quietly listening with a serious look on his face as Jace spoke. He leaned forward in his chair and leaned over the table a little to get closer to Jace as he said, "I will do my best and give her a chance."

"I guess that is all that I can ask for." Jace replies and Alec gives him a warm smile.

They remain quiet for a few minutes as the look at the menu and decide what they want and eventually order the pot stickers like they always do. When the waiter comes over, they give him their order and he hurries off leaving them to start up a conversation again. "Why don't we just have a guy's night tonight? Just me and you. Maybe go and see a movie or go to Bat's bar and just hang out." Alec suggests.

"I made plans with Clary and her brother already." Jace says sounding a bit apologetic. "We are going to one of the clubs Valentine owns. Apparently, her brother just broke up with his long time girlfriend and needs to let loose and get laid. Those are Clary's words, not mine." Jace says with a small chuckle.

"Aren't you afraid that tensions might rise up with you and her brother?" Alec asks sounding concerned.

"I don't think so." Jace replies. "We got along pretty well at the annual meeting and Clary said he just laughed when she told him who she was dating. He told her that as long I made her happy and kept her safe, that he would accept our relationship. And anyway, I get the feeling that if Jonathan Morgenstern was going to try and harm or kill me, I wouldn't know it was coming until it was too late."

"We've both heard rumors about how sneaky and ruthless he can be." Alec says worriedly. "I wouldn't trust him if I were you."

"I _don't_ trust him." Jace says back to his concerned friend. "I trust Clary. I trust her to keep me safe from her family just like I am keeping her safe from mine."

"Why don't I go with you?" Alec suddenly offers.

"Seriously?" Jace asks surprised. "You...in a club...with people dancing?"

"I can bring Magnus." he adds on sounding as if it were an afterthought. "He is always trying to get me to 'expand my comfort zone' as he says all of the time."

"Alright." Jace says with a crooked smile. "Maybe I will actually get to speak to him this time we meet."

"It's a double date, then." Alec says to him.

"A triple date." Jace corrects and smiles as he picks up his beer and downs the rest of it before pulling out his phone to text Clary and tell her Alec and Magnus are coming.

* * *

 _Please review and tell me what you think! Thanks a million for reading!_


	14. Chapter 14

**Here is a long update for you Neilah. I saw your review and wanted to give you what you asked for. I hope everyone enjoys!**

* * *

"How did it go?" Valentine asks his daughter as she climbs into his car with him. The engine revs and they take off away from the restaurant.

"It turns out that I didn't need your council. I handled it. I don't think we will ever have a problem with Hodge Starkweather again." Clary answers him.

"So he's still alive?" Valentine asks questioningly. "I know Jonathan Herondale was the one who tipped us off about his attempt to run. I spoke briefly with his top man, Michael Wayland, and he was concerned about losing Hodge because it would create problems with his business."

"Hodge has always been a weak and scared man." Clary says with a tinge of disgust in her voice. Being surrounded by strong and fearless men all of her life has made her develop a repulsion for weak and submissive men. "But his wife; she was not. She convinced him to try and run so I had her taken care of. He watched so he would know what would happen to his daughters if he tried to run again."

"Where are his daughters?" Valentine asks with slight concern in his voice.

"They weren't there. We have them back at his store." she tells him and sees relief wash over him. No matter what horrible things her father has done, he has never harmed innocent children nor does he want to. He always finds another way to get people to cooperate with him and only just has to threaten hurting children. People always do whatever he wants them to do after that.

"Good." he remarks. "See that his girls are treated well by our men."

"I will, daddy."

* * *

"Hey baby. I'm outside." Jace texts Clary as his SUV pulls up outside of the club. There is a line around the club of people waiting to get in wearing next to nothing in the cold November night.

" _I'll be right out._ " Clary replies with a text of her own. Jace looks up and to the door to see three heavily armed bouncer. To the untrained eye, it would appear that they didn't have any weapons on them. But for Jace, the two hand guns tucked into each of the bouncer's jackets and the brass knuckles in the biggest one's front pocket were easy to see. They weren't ordinary bouncers. They were clearly part of the Morgenstern mafia.

"You ready, Max?" Jace asks out loud as he turns to face the very casually dressed guard to his left in the back of the vehicle. "We are about to venture deep into enemy territory. I want you to be on your A game."

"We will, Jace." Max replies as he looks ahead to the other body guard, Trevor, in the front seat. From what he could see of him, Trevor was as taught as a pulled bow string. "We will have cars at every exit if things start to look...hairy."

"Alright." Jace replies. Even though he is sure Clary has everything under control, part of him is still really nervous about going into somewhere full of Valentine's men. Not to mention, Jonathan Morgenstern will be there as well. "Well...here goes nothing." he says and opens his door and steps out of the SUV at the same time that his guard Trevor does. Trevor immediately steps to him and places himself in front and to the side of Jace in a protective manner. Max climbs out quickly behind him and shuts the door. Jace smooths down his black button up shirt and tightly fitting grey slacks and then looks up and makes eye contact with the biggest of the bouncers.

"I believe you know I was coming." he says to him in his most confident and commanding voice once he is within ear shot. He is absolutely unwilling to let anyone know that he is nervous.

"Unfortunately..." the bouncer starts to say but is abruptly interrupted by the door to the club swinging open widely and practically slamming into one of the other bouncers.

"Jace!" he hears Clary shout. His eyes leave the bouncer he was talking to and land on his woman and his jaw practically hits the ground. She is wearing a very tight black dress that stops mid thigh. There is a deep plunging neck line that goes halfway to her navel while her arms are completely covered by the dress's long black sleeves. Half of each of her breasts are showing and he can't stop looking at them. And to top it all off, she is wearing thigh high black boots with about a three inch heel that has him thinking very dirty thoughts about her.

"Shit, baby. You look... _so_ fucking hot." he says breathlessly to her as she walks over to him with a swing in her hips.

She smiles seductively up at him as she closes the last few feet to him and says, "I thought you might like this dress."

"You were wrong." he whispers lowly to her as he wraps his arms around her and pulls her flush with his body. "I love it."

"Mmm." she hums at him. "Do you love it more than you love me?" she asks playfully.

"I think I might." he says gruffly as his hands slide down and grab a handful of her tight butt. Her arms wrap around his neck and she pulls him in for a blistering hot kiss. It doesn't last long enough and Clary has to practically push him off of her with a chuckle.

"We should go inside before we decide to go somewhere else..." she whispers sexily to him.

"I like the idea of going somewhere else." he says to her but she steps away from him and grabs his hand.

"Later." she says like a promise and bites her lip. "But for now, we should get inside before my brother comes looking for me and I freeze to death out here."

"I can keep you warm." Jace says with a heavy undertone to his voice but she doesn't fall for it.

"Come on you perv." she tells him playfully and turns back toward the club and starts to pull him along. His eyes travel down to her butt and he smiles at the sight. "I guess I can't complain to much that you turned me down. The view from back here is amazing." He reaches out and gives her butt a little pinch and she jumps and turns around to look at him with a surprised smile on her face.

"I didn't turn you down. I just said later." she clarifies.

He gives her a crooked smile just as the bouncers open the door for them and Clary, Jace, and his men all file in. Once through the doors and coat check, it opens up to a big open area. Almost everything in the whole place is a black and a deep purple color. The music is loud and there are people dancing and making out everywhere he looks. Clary tightens her grip on his hand as one of her men makes a path through the crowd for them. He looks over their heads and sees where they are headed.

There is an area in the back that is slightly raised over the rest of the club with a very long black couch. There are purple chairs and clear tables placed sporadically throughout the area as well. Even though it is very dark in there with only the occasional beam of light from from the moving colored light canisters, he can very clearly see the bright white hair of Jonathan Morgenstern as he lounges on one of the couches. There is a very attractive latina woman tucked under one of his arms with heavy make up on and a barely there red dress. It would usually be the kind of girl that Jace himself would pick up but after looking back at Clary, he can't imagine how he ever thought overly made up women like that were attractive. Clary's beauty is so effortless and she hardly wears any makeup while her hair is always soft and wavy instead of being brittle from too much hairspray.

He tugs on her hand just as she is about to climb the few stairs into the secluded area and spins her around. "God, I love you." he says lowly to her when he has her in his arms and his eyes locked on hers.

Clary looks up at him and is surprised to see such tenderness and honesty in his eyes in the middle of a packed club. Her eyes soften towards him and her lips pull up into her most loving and genuine smile as she says, "I love you too." She reaches up and kisses him softly and sweetly for a moment before pulling back. "Come on." she tells him. "You need to meet my brother."

"I already have met him." he tells her.

"No. You met the business Jonathan." she explains. "Now you get to meet the brother Jonathan and not so serious Jonathan."

"I can't wait." he replies dryly and with mock enthusiasm on his face and she lets out a few laughs before beginning to pull him along beside her again.

Jace looks to his left and right and sees that there are Morgenstern men all over the club. The only reason he knows this is because there are men that are lining the walls of the club. They look like they are just patrons there but the death stare they are giving him and his men give them away. The two of them take the couple of steps up and into the private area and he tries to focus his full attention on Clary and giving her brother a good impression.

"Where's Alec?" Clary shouts over the loud music while looking back at him.

"He is bringing his boyfriend." he yells back as the close the last of the distance toward her brother. "He said that it takes Magnus a while to get ready so I have no idea when he will be here."

The moment the words are out of his mouth, they come within hearing distance of her brother and the girl he is with. "And what else would you do to me?" he hears Jonathan say to the girl who giggles. Clary walks right up to him and smacks him in the chest forcefully to get his attention. "Hey. Get up. I want you to meet Jace." Clary says to him.

"I've already met him." Jonathan says to her without looking at him.

"That's what I told her." Jace chimes in with a slight smile on his face. Jonathan finally looks at him and narrows his eyes at him as he studies him. "But I've found that it's easier to just go along with whatever she wants. She may be little but her punches actually hurt when she doesn't get her way."

His words seem to lighten the atmosphere between them and Jonathan smiles lightly as his eyes dart back to Clary. "Truer words have never been spoken." he tells his sister and laughs a few times as she glares at him. She kicks his feet and he rolls his eyes as he moves the girl's hand that was on his thigh off and stands up with a huff. "I'm Jonathan. Call me Jonathan." Jonathan says to Jace with a crooked smile as he holds out his hand.

"I'm Jonathan. Call me Jace." Jace replies with a small laugh and shakes his hand.

"Now..." Jonathan says as he looks back to Clary. "Can I get back to this?" He nods his head to the smiling dark headed girl behind him who is now smiling shamelessly at Jace.

"Oh, come on." she says exasperatedly. "You know she's a sure thing. She's wanted to sleep with you for years."

Jonathan turns his head back to look at the girl and she looks up and him and smiles seductively. "Marisol, this is Jace." he says and motions to Jace.

"Nice to meet you." Jace says and waves at her. She wiggles her fingers back at him.

"Where did Maia and Jordan go?" Clary asks as she pulls him to the couch. She sits next to her brother and Jace sits on the other side of her and throws his arm around her waist. She leans comfortably into his side just as Jordan and Maia walk up to them answering her own question. Maia's hair is disheveled and Jordan's shirt is halfway tucked in and his lips are bright pink. There is also a scratch mark on the back of his neck that looks like it was made in the throws of passion. "We are right here." Jordan says after hearing Clary's question.

Clary rakes her eyes up and down the both of them. When she looks back up to their faces, she tries to raise one eyebrow but ends up raising both instead. "I see that the two of you 'went to smoke a cigarette' out on the patio." She raises her hands and uses air quotes when she says that because clearly, that is not what they were doing.

Jordan starts to blush but Maia just smiles widely and winks at Clary before pulling Jordan to one of the purple chairs across from them. He falls into the seat and Maia sits in his lap, throwing her legs over the arm of the couch.

"So..." he hears Jonathan say in his direction and he turns to see that he has angled his body towards him and Clary in order to talk to him. "...you being with my sister is the last thing I ever thought I would see."

"Same here." Jace says back to him. "But, I wouldn't have it any other way. She's changed me for the better and I like who I am now because of it. I was a huge man-whore before Clary."

"So I've heard." Jonathan says as he drops his voice low. "I hope you know that my sister isn't someone you can just use and..."

He doesn't finish the sentence because Clary cuts him off. "He knows. I've told you that. I've told you everything." she says knowingly at him. They stare at each other with narrowed eyes for a moment, sharing wordless communtication with their eyes before she continues. "Now, can you just quit acting like my father and act like my cool big brother?"

Jonathan takes a deep breath and blows it out as he looks to Jace one last time critically and nods his head as his eyes and face relax. "Yeah. Sorry Clare. I'll do my best."

Clary nods her head, satisfied with his answer, and her body relaxes against Jace's once again. "What happened with Hodge..." Jonathan starts to ask but is quickly cut off by Clary. "And no business either!"

"Fine." Jonathan mutters before taking his arm and wrapping it around Marisol next to him. A server appears then that Clary has never seen before with a bright smile on her face. "Can I get you anything?" she asks them.

"A round of shots for everyone." Jace tells her with a polite smile. "I think it's time to kick back for the night."

"Right away." the server tells him with a flirtatious smile on her lips as her eyes linger a little too long on his crotch area. She then turns around and leaves while swinging her hips a little too much from side to side and looks over her shoulder at him before descending the few stairs back to the main area. When he looks back to Clary, her eyes have narrowed into tiny slits at the retreating woman. He pulls her closer to him to let her know that he didn't even give the server a second glance and she looks up at him. "Don't worry. I barely even noticed she was there. Not to mention, she isn't even close to my type."

"Oh?" Clary asks with a flirtatious smile. "And what is your type?"

"Red hair, short and stacked, green eyes that I can get lost in...and most importantly, my enemy mobster's daughter. I like to live dangerously." he says and finishes with a smile.

She leans into him and turns her face up to his and he closes his eyes as he leans down and his lips touch hers. It is a quick but soft kiss that tells the other how they feel about each other. "Good." Clary says in almost a whisper back to him. "Cause I'm not going to lie. The thought of killing her did cross my mind..."

Jace can't help but smile and throw his head back and laugh. "There's no need for that. I'm all yours." She is about to say something else when he hears Maia squeal loudly. He turns his face to look at her and sees that she is smiling and pulling Jordan up and motioning for Clary and him to get up as well. "We love this song." Clary explains when he looks at her for an explanation. "We always go and dance to it. Last year we went on a road trip against father's wishes and ran wild across the country. This song was kind of our anthem."

"Then by all means, let's go." Jace says as he stands up quickly and pulls a smiling Clary with him as the song Running Wild by Morgan Page (Jayceeoh remix) pumps through the speakers. People move out of their way as they walk to the dance floor. The moment they are in the middle of the room, the girls stop and Clary turns to face Jace. She smiles mischievously at him and then starts to slide down the length of his body. His eyes widen as her hands drag down the front of him, leaving a trail of electrified skin in their wake.

She slides back up his body and turns around and places her back against his front. His hands snake around her body and come to rest on her hips. Jace closes his eyes for a moment and lets his head fall back as he feels Clary move skillfully against his body. Her hands are now on his thighs as her hips roll and he looks back down at her when her nails dig in pleasurably. Her red hair covers the front of him as she flips her head up and back to look at him. His eyes are drawn to her pouty lips when she takes her bottom one in between her teeth.

Without making the decision to do so, he bends down to kiss her. His hands grip her hips tighter as she tilts her head up and back along his chest to meet his mouth. His lips are only a feather on hers when a hand is placed rather roughly on his shoulder. The hand tightens and he feels a wave of severe annoyance at whoever it is until he hears, "Jace. There you are." It's Alec's voice.

Clary hears a slightly familiar voice boom rather loudly over the music and Jace suddenly turns his lips from hers. She grumbles to herself at the loss of the surely hot kiss he was about to give her with the way his eyes were devouring her. He loosens his grip on her hips and turns away from her to look at the person who took his attention. Clary turns around as well and sees that it is Alec and his very sparkly boyfriend Magnus. "You made it." she hears Jace say with a smile on his lips. "Your timing could be improved on, but at least you are here and I finally get to properly meet Magnus."

"I told him to wait for the song to be over." Magnus chimes in with a slightly apologetic look in his eyes towards Jace. "You looked...preoccupied."

Clary steps forward and touches Jace's hand. He then looks down at her and pulls her into his side and wraps his arm around her waist while she holds onto his belt in the middle of his back. Clary can't help the slight narrowing of her eyes when she looks at Alec. She is trying to forgive and forget but that has always been a little harder for her because of her family's line of business. She was always taught to get revenge instead of forgive. But for Jace...she will do anything to make him happy.

She takes a deep breath and clears her head and relaxes her face so it won't betray her. She has been told more than once that she sometimes has a R.B.F. (resting bitch face) and it helps in her line of work but not so much in her personal life. "It's nice to see you here." Clary says loudly. All three men turn their eyes to her with somewhat surprised looks on their faces. Jace's quickly morphs into a loving look while Magnus' turns into an amused one and Alec's looks somewhat...annoyed. That's if she was reading them right.

"It was nice of you to invite us." Alec says to her with a warm smile on his face. "You didn't have to."

'Surely he knows that I didn't invite him' she thinks to herself. But pointing that out won't do any good. "I'm just glad that we get to start over. You are a big part of Jace's life and I want us to get to know each other and be friends." she yells over the music. Alec smiles back at her as Jace looks between the two of them. "Me too." he replies.

"Why don't we get out of their way." Magnus says and gestures to the horde of sweaty bodies that surround them on the dance floor.

"Sure thing." Clary says with a smile. "Follow me." People once again move out of her way as she leaves the dance floor with Jace holding onto her hand and following behind her. When they get back to their private area, she notices that her brother and Marisol are not there. She looks to the dance floor and quickly spots his bright hair. Marisol is sliding all over him while his hands skim all over her body. Maia and Jordan are still in their own world on the dance floor and probably haven't even noticed that her and Jace are gone.

The server returns with the six shots they ordered just as they sit on the long black curved couch. She has unbuttoned one of the buttons on the top of her shirt. She bends over lowly to set the tray of drinks down on the glass table in front of them and gives her and Jace a view of her black lacy bra and her breasts that are falling out of it. She looks up at Jace through her eyelashes, which are heavily caked with mascara, and gives him a seductive look and a small wink.

"Are you fucking serious?" Clary mumbles under her breath as she looks at the girl's brazen attempt to flirt with her man. Before she can say anything else, Magnus leans forward and points to the girl's shirt and says, "You might want to button up your shirt, sweetie." The server turns and looks at him, clearly confused and he continues. "Your dignity just fell out of there and you should button it up before anything else embarrassing falls out. Like your hopes of walking out of here alive. Just look at the way Miss. Morgenstern is looking at you."

The server's eyes widen and her mouth falls open as she snaps her head to look at Clary. Her face pales dramatically and Clary tries to raise one brow at her and fails as if to say, 'Now what do you have to say for yourself?'

"I...I..." the girl stammers. "I'm new here. I didn't...I thought you were just a friend of Mr. Morgenstern's." She looks out to where Jonathan is and motions towards him. "He just said friends were coming...I..."

Magnus leans forward and stage whispers dramatically, "Honey, I'm pretty sure you are going to be looking for a new job tomorrow."

Clary raises her hand slightly and catches the eye of one of the guards placed at the entrance to their private area. She motions for him and he quickly walks over to them. She nods to the now terrified looking server and nods her head at her and says, "Make her go away. I don't ever want to see her face again. If I do, I won't leave it looking as pretty as it is right now." The guard nods and grabs the girl by her upper arm and starts to pull her out of the club. "Fucking slut." Clary mutters and Jace lets out a roll of laughter. Surprised, Clary turns and looks at him fully. "What's so funny?" she asks him.

"Nothing is funny." Jace replies with a wide smile. "I like jealous Clary. She's hot." he says huskily to her.

"I was _not_ jealous of her." she says strongly back to him. "She disrespected me."

"...by flirting with me." Jace says and pulls her close to his body. Clary doesn't try to disagree with him anymore and instead just rolls her eyes and can't help but give him a reluctant smile. "I've got to keep my pimp hand strong and keep them hoes back away from my man." Clary says with a mock serious look and shows Jace the back of her hand and motions like she is going to back hand someone.

Jace laughs and Magnus smiles as he looks at her and says, "I like this one, Alec." and points to Clary. "She's funny."

Clary looks over at Alec and he gives her a tentative smile as he says, "She's not too bad so far."

"She's amazing." Jace whispers so low that no one else can hear but her. She turns her head back to him and nothing is going to stop her from kissing Jace this time. One of her hands comes up and cups his face and she pulls him to her. Their lips connect and soon they are moving perfectly in sync.

"I hope you don't mind, Clary, but..." Alec says and Clary groans a little as she pulls away from Jace after a few seconds and looks over to Alec. "...when I told Magnus where we were going tonight, he was with my sister and she wanted to come also."

"That's fine, Alec." Clary tells him. "I'll tell my guys to let her in. Just tell her to text you when she's here and..."

"There's no need for that." Magnus chimes in. "They'll let her in."

"Why do you say that?" she asks him.

"You'll understand why when you meet her." Alec adds on with a knowing smile and Clary just shrugs her shoulders. "If you say so." she says and reaches out and picks up one of the shots that was brought earlier. She nods for everyone else to do the same and she holds her glass up a little. "To new friendships. May we put the past behind us and build a new future together with one another." Her eyes dart to Jace for a moment to see his worshipful look and then back to the two other men. They raise their glasses and down the shots before slamming the empty glasses down onto the table.

"Baby. Where's the bathroom?" Jace asks Clary.

"Just around the corner over there." she says and points to a black light illuminated hallway.

"I'll be back in a second." he tells her and leans over and gives her a peck on the lips before standing up and heading towards the bathroom as his own two men follow him. As soon as he is out of earshot, Alec gains her attention. "Jace tells me you are an artist?" he asks her.

She nods her head. "I am. My mother is one also...which you probably already know." she says with a smile and he chuckles a little. "I did know that." he responds.

"She taught me everything I know. It's what I love to do most. Especially after a long day like today."

"Alec is all too familiar with long days." Magnus says from the other side of Alec. "I barely get to see him in anything other than a suit as he is leaving my bedroom in the mornings."

Alec nudges Magnus lightly in the ribs and Clary smiles at their exchange. "Ignore him." Alec says playfully and she smiles even wider. "That's kind of hard to do when he is dressed in head to toe glitter." she says with a nod towards his purple glitter shirt and his glitter infused black leather pants. Compared to Alec's light blue button up with his sleeves rolled up and his black denim pants, he is like a walking disco ball.

"I know." Alec says dramatically. "I can't take him anywhere without his clothes reflecting light."

Clary laughs at this little joke and at the way Magnus is narrowing his eyes at Alec playfully. 'Maybe Alec won't be so bad after all.' she thinks to herself and then raises her hand to her men and signals for another round of drinks.

* * *

Jace steps out of the bathroom stall and walks over to the sink to wash his hands. Once he is done, he looks in the mirror above the sink and smooths down his hair before turning to leave. He is still looking in the mirror when he opens the door. When he turns to see where he is going, he is met by Jonathan Morgenstern's maniacally smiling face and dark menacing eyes. Jace practically jumps from the surprise of Jonathan's face so close to his. "Hey there, blondie." Jonathan says in an ominous voice.

Something about the way Jonathan says that makes Jace feel worried. He sticks his head further into the hallway and sees that his two men, Max and Trevor, are laying on the ground unconscious. "Don't worry. I just knocked them out. Only a little." Jonathan says in a nonchalant tone. "They will come to in a minute."

"Why the fuck did you do that?" Jace growls back at him.

"To let you know that I can get to you with no problems...if I really wanted to." Jonathan answers threateningly. "There is no where you could hide from me if you hurt my little sister. Do you understand what I am telling you?"

Jace glances at his two men on the floor and grits his teeth together. If this wasn't Clary's brother and he was anywhere else, he would beat the shit out of him right this second. But he is her brother and he is in his club. He wants her family to like him and approve of their relationship and so... "I understand." he answers Jonathan and tries to smooth his face from the burgeoning angry look to a more calm and collected one.

"Good." Jonathan says brightly and steps away from the door where he was blocking it. "Now we can try to be friends."

"After I wake up my men." Jace says with annoyance and crouches down to pat Max on the face so he'll wake up.

"I didn't punch them or anything." Jonathan says from above. "I didn't want to hurt the kid. Just make him go to sleep. I used this technique that this old Chinese man taught me."

Jace pats Max on the face a few times before he starts to stir. Once he regains most of his consciousness, he sits up straight and looks around worriedly. "I...don't know what happened." Max says with worry.

"Come on." Jace says to Max. "Your fine. Stand up and help me wake up Trevor."

Max hurries to his feet and looks over to see Jonathan pulling Trevor into a sitting position after waking him up. "You dropped like a ton of bricks." Jonathan says with a friendly smile on his face as Trevor registers who he is and glares at him slightly. "Awww. Don't be like that, man." Jonathan says to him. "You didn't get hurt. You helped me prove a point. How about I buy you and your friend a drink to make up for it." he offers and nods his head towards Max. Trevor stands up and looks a little embarrassed as he looks over to Jace. "I could also throw in a girl or two if you want." Jonathan adds on and Trevor looks back at him with a disapproving look. "Alright. Just a drink it is." Jonathan says with a laugh and turns to head back to their private area.

Clary looks up to see an amused look on her brother's face as Jace and Trevor and Max follow behind him; both of them looking like they just lost some horrible bet. By the daggers Trevor is staring at her brother, she knows he probably did something obnoxious that would make her angry. Jace doesn't look too upset so she won't say anything to her brother unless Jace brings it up. She doesn't like to meddle in pissing contests between men which is obviously what just happened knowing her brother. And by the looks on Jace's men's faces, her brother won this round.

"Is everything good?" Clary asks as Jace takes his seat next to her and beside Alec.

"Everything is fine." he reassures her and gives her a quick peck.

"Where did Marisol go?" Jonathan asks her after he looks around for a minute and doesn't see her.

"She went to the bathroom." Clary tells him and smiles at him.

"Where? I was just in the hall with the bathrooms."

"She just walked in the hall." Clary nods her head to the disappearing figure of Marisol around the corner. "She ordered some drinks first."

"Well fuck. What am I going to do for the next fifteen minutes?" Jonathan says exasperatedly while looking at his sister. "You know how long she takes in the bathroom."

"You might as well take a seat. It will definitely be a while." Clary says with a small laugh. Jonathan takes a step towards one of the purple chairs across from them but before he can sit down, something catches his eye down on the dance floor and his face goes blank for a second. He then swallows roughly and stands up straight before a smirk appears on his lips. "Nevermind." Jonathan says without looking at his sister. "I just figured out what I'm going to do."

Clary sits up a little and follows her brother's line of sight. She mainly just sees a bunch of arms and sweaty bodies when she hears Magnus choke out a laugh. She turns to look at him and sees a knowing smile on his face as he spots what, or who, her brother is watching.

Clary then redoubles her effort to find what her brother sees and then...she spots it. Or rather, spots her. There is a stunningly attractive woman with long straight black hair and the most beautiful light brown eyes. She has the perfect hourglass figure that is accentuated by the slither of blue cloth that is considered a cocktail dress and is practically glued to her body. On any other person, the dress would look slutty. But on this woman, it looks like something she pulled off of the runway in Milan earlier that day.

A pang of jealousy spreads quickly through Clary and she can't help but look at Jace to see if he is looking at the stunning woman too who seems to be making her way back to where they are. She is surprised to see a very loving look on his face as he looks at the woman of the moment. But it isn't a romantic loving look. It's... "That's Isabelle?" Clary asks raising her voice and both eyebrows in surprise as everything clicks into place in her head.

"It is." Jace answers and looks at Clary. "She's beautiful but looks too much like Alec. Every time I look at her, I see him and Max. Not to mention, we were raised together and she is like my little sister."

"That's not what I was worried about." Clary quickly says and Jace infuriatingly raises one eyebrow at her; challenging what she just said. She briefly thinks about denying it but he would probably see right through it. "Okay. Maybe that's what I was worried about. But only a little." she says and he chuckles before kissing her quickly once again.

Alec rises from his seat and heads towards the guards by the entrance to their private area to meet his sister. Most of the guards that are positioned around the club have let their eyes follow her as she sashayed gracefully to the back. Clary sees her brother out of the corner of his eye run his hand through his hair as if he is trying to fix it and then straighten his shirt as he stands up taller. She rolls her eyes at him seemingly completely dismissing Marisol and now focusing on Isabelle. That is such a 'Jonathan' thing to do. She stands up and walks over to her brother and nudges him in the side with her elbow to get his attention.

"That's apparently Alec's sister." she says lowly to him.

"Who's Alec?" Jonathan asks her without taking his eyes off of Isabelle.

She punches him in the side and he doesn't even pretend to flinch for her sake like he usually does because he is so focused on Isabelle who is now climbing the few steps into their area. "It's Jace's best friend. You know...that guy right over there with the black hair and blue eyes."

"Oh. Yeah." Jonathan says dismissively. "You told me he was coming."

Clary, seeing that trying to talk to her brother any longer would be completely pointless, closed her mouth and looked to her as well. All of her brother's attention was now solely on the black haired beauty currently walking over to them as Alec whispered something in her ear. Clary felt a hand on the small of her back and knew without looking that it was Jace. His touch always sent an electric current running through her just like the current she is feeling now.

Alec and his sister come to a stop in front of them and Jace leans forward to Isabelle and they kiss one another on their cheeks as a way of greeting. "Clary, this is my sister Isabelle." Alec says to her.

Isabelle smiles brightly flashing her perfect white teeth as she holds out her hand and says, "Call me Izzy. It's nice to meet you."

"You too." Clary responds. There is something about the way that Isabelle is smiling at her that puts her at ease. She was expecting to feel on edge about the beautiful woman who spends a lot of time with her boyfriend but instead, she doesn't feel the least bit threatened.

Jonathan clears his throat indiscreetly and her brown eyes land on him. "I'm Jonathan. Clary's brother." he says with his most charming smile. Clary watches as Izzy's eyes scan her brother from head to toe while her face perfectly hides whatever she thinks about him. She quickly notes that Izzy is good at hiding what she is feeling and decides then that she likes that about her. Usually, girls just fall all over her brother and start giggling at just the sight of him. But Izzy...she's definitely different.

"I know who you are, Jonathan Morgenstern." she replies coolly and holds out her hand to him. He shakes it while their eyes connect and one side of Jonathan's lips turn up into a flirtatious smile.

"Well, then." Jonathan replies as he lets go of her hand. "Would you like anything to drink?" He raises his hand while never taking his eyes off of Izzy's and motions quickly for one of his men to come over so he can tell them what to get.

"I'll just have a beer." she tells him and he smiles widely.

"My kind of woman." he says lowly to her and she huffs out a small laugh and looks over to Clary with a small roll of her eyes.

"Come on." Clary says to her. "I'll save you." She reaches out and takes Izzy's hand and pulls her over to the couch where she sits down in between Jace and Izzy and angles her body towards her so she can speak with her.

"Jace wasn't exaggerating." Izzy says catching Clary off guard. She furrows her brows in confusion and Izzy smiles and continues. "You are just as beautiful as Jace said you would be."

Clary can't help the blush that rises on her cheeks and feels Jace wrap one of his arms around her as he turns away from the conversation he started having with Alec and says, "I told you." to Izzy.

"I know." she says easily with a smile. "But your version of beautiful in the past has meant a girl with caked on makeup and bulbous fake boobs with brains the size of walnuts."

"Don't remind me." Jace says dryly and Izzy laughs at him. "What the hell was I thinking?"

"You weren't." Izzy says with a smile and then points to the area between his pants. " _He_ was thinking."

Clary laughs along with Izzy when she says that and the two girls subconsciously lean a little closer to each other in a sort of camaraderie. "Don't they all?" she says and Izzy nods her head emphatically and they laugh harder.

As their laughter starts to die down, her brother appears on the couch on the other side of Izzy with two cold beers in his hands. He smiles charmingly at Izzy and hands her one of them. She takes the beer from him and says "Thanks." without much inflection in her voice and a blank face. When he sees that her face is unchanged and that his usual tactics to try and charm a woman with his good looks isn't working, a tiny little crease of confusion forms in between his brows. Izzy obviously isn't impressed by him or the power that he holds like every other woman he's ever been with was. So, he tries a different approach. "What do you do for a living?" Jonathan asks her in an attempt to direct her attention to himself by getting her to talk about herself.

"I design clothes." she says with an almost monotone voice and a tiny playful smile on her lips.

"That's awesome." he replies. "So you are an artist like Clary is?"

His reply seems to catch Izzy off guard and she turns her head fully to Jonathan. "Yes. I am. Most men just think that I am just overly obsessed with clothes and shoes and play dress up all day."

"That's because they have never lived with two artists and gotten skull drug by them when someone said something wasn't art when they thought it was." he says with a smile and a light chuckle. Izzy returns his small smile as well. "I have seen how much thought and work can go into being an artist and I would never demean or devalue what they do. Especially if I value my life growing up with red headed artists with fiery tempers."

While Izzy seems to like his answer and smiles even more at Jonathan, she still doesn't seem that impressed by him and turns back to face Clary much to Jonathan's dismay. Jace lets out a tiny chuckle at Jonathan's now dumbfounded face as his very good attempt to get her attention failed once again. "I never thought I would see the day that Jace got tied down." she says as she looks at Clary. "How did you do it?"

Clary smiles and looks back at Jace lovingly and says, "I don't really know. It just kind of...happened." When she looks back to Izzy, there is this look of happiness for Jace on her face and Clary knows then that she likes this girl. "You wanna go dance for a minute?" she blurts out and Izzy smiles widely at her. "I'd love to." she says and then leans her head back and chugs the rest of the beer in only a few seconds.

Jonathan, on the other side of her, watches her with rapt attention and appreciation. Once the beer is gone, she sets the empty bottle on the table in front of them and grabs Clary's hand and pulls her up. The two girls head off while Jace and Jonathan watch after them. "What the..." Jonathan says mostly to himself. "Where the hell did she come from and where can I get another one? She's the perfect balance of sexy and spunk and can chug a beer better than me for fuck's sake."

"And you'll probably never get to first base." Jace adds on with a knowing smile. "Izzy isn't impressed by...well...anything. You'll have to figure out another way to get her to pay attention to you...if you can."

Jonathan watches the girls as they reach the middle of the dance floor and find Maia and Jordan. They soon get rid of Jordan and he starts to make his way back to them while Jonathan can't take his eyes off of Izzy. "I'll find a way." he says lowly and to himself even though Jace can hear. "I think I'm in love with her."

Jace laughs loudly at Jonathan's face of awe and says, "Then I want to be the first one to wish you good luck. You're going to need it."

That is when Marisol decides to return. Jace can tell she has a fresh coat of makeup on and her breasts are spilling over her dress even more than they were before. She swings her hips and smiles at Jonathan, obviously looking for a compliment from him, but he still can't take his eyes off of the dance floor where Izzy is. Marisol slides her hand along his shoulders as she sits down next to him and he finally notices that she's there. "Oh." he says looking at her with a sort of grossed out look on his face. "I don't think this is going to work out, Marisol." he tells her bluntly and removes her hand from his shoulders.

Her mouth falls open in surprise and her eyes widen. "What?"

"I said that I think you should go home." he says looking fully at her. "I thought about it and I don't think I should mix work with play."

"But you work with my father, not me." she says indignantly.

"Same difference." he says to her. "I'll have one of my men take you home." He raises his arm again to catch his men's attention and nods to Marisol who now has a completely dumbfounded look on her face. Two men walk over and look at Marisol, waiting for her to get up and her face turns angry and hurt. "You're an asshole." she says to Jonathan and he just laughs.

"You're right. But you still need to leave." Jonathan says and then his men are stepping closer to her. She quickly stands up and flips her hair angrily over her shoulder and stands up straight in an attempt to keep her dignity and then she is stomping off with two men following behind her.

"Damn." Jace remarks with a smirk. "You got rid of a sure thing for Izzy?"

"I told you. I think I'm in love with her." Jonathan says looking back out at Izzy.

"Did he just say he was in love with someone?" Alec says as he leans over to Jace.

"Yeah. Izzy." Jace answers and shifts his body to face his friend. "But don't worry. She didn't seem the least bit interested."

"Oh, I'm not worried about Izzy. We all know she can handle herself and any man that comes her way, I just thought the bastard was heartless from all the stories I've heard." Alec says.

"Just like all of the stories about how evil I am, right?" Jace asks with an arch of his brow. Jace has heard all of the rumors about himself and barely any of them are good.

"I guess you are right." he replies with a shrug. "You're not the heartless bastard that everyone says you are."

"Hey!" Jace says with mock hurt. "You wound me."

Alec smiles radiantly at Jace and says, "I never believed a word of it. Except for the man-whore stuff. Mainly because that was all true." Jace and Alec share a laugh before Alec continues. "I always knew you would settle down eventually once you... found the right person. I just didn't think it would happen so quickly. I thought for sure that it would be a slow process. Leave it to you to dive into a relationship head first though and leave the rest of our heads spinning."

"I like to think it's like us." Magnus chimes in as he joins the conversation. "Our relationship has been a whirlwind and I wouldn't change a thing."

"That's great." Jace tells them. "I'm so glad you are happy, Alec. If Magnus is the reason for that, then he's good in my book. Welcome to the family." he says as he looks over at Magnus with a bright smile.

"Thanks buttercup." Magnus replies and Alec rolls his eyes and says, "He makes up the worst nicknames for people."

"I think that's a great nickname for him." he hears someone say and turns to see Jordan sitting down between him and Jonathan. "I think Buttercup is perfect for Jace."

Jordan's words catch the attention of Jonathan and then he is tearing his eyes away from Izzy and spinning to face the rest of the boys. "Buttercup Herondale definitely has a ring to it." Jonathan says with an amused smile.

"Fucking hell, Alec!" Jace exclaims in frustration. "Your boyfriend just gave me the worst nickname that I never wanted. And now I have a strong feeling that Jonathan Morgenstern, whose nickname is The Grim Reaper, will be calling me Buttercup Herondale."

Jordan bursts out laughing while Jonathan smiles maniacally at him. "I told you he gave the worst nicknames." Alec says with sympathy. "I would feel bad for you but you haven't heard my nickname."

"And he never will." Magnus says. "Unless he decides to join us in the bedroom for a night of debauchery." Alec's face immediately turns bright red and Jace can't help but chuckle a little before he says, "I think that would be too weird for me and Alec. He's like my brother."

"True." Alec says as the redness in his face subsides. "We are as close as brothers."

"Now that that is settled," Jonathan says as he gets up and comes to sit directly in front of Jace and Alec on the glass table, "...why don't you tell me a little about your sister."

Alec laughs briefly and says, "Not a chance. You're on your own for that one. I'm not going to help you. You're a crime boss..."

Alec is cut off by the loud bang of a gun firing at the front of the club. All of the men's heads shoot up in a split second and look to where people have started to scream near the middle of the dance floor. Jace, Jonathan, and Jordan jump up then as they see a man wielding a gun and trying to grab Clary.

Jonathan's men are desperately trying to get to her but there are too many frantic club goers preventing them from getting near her. The man is easily the size of a professional linebacker and is clawing at Clary and trying to get a good hold on her. He grabs a fistful of her dress on her left shoulder but she spins away and out of his grasp but not before ripping the sleeve off.

Maia has grabbed his other hand that is holding the gun and is struggling against his strength to keep it pointed at the ground and not at Clary who it is clearly meant for. "You bitch! Where is he?!" he shouts over the screaming crowd.

Jace and the other two men are still struggling to get through the crowd; pushing and shoving down anyone who is in their way. Jace briefly registers that he shoved a young blonde woman to the ground and stepped on her but he really could care less. His heart is pounding painfully hard in his chest as his eyes are locked onto the woman he loves in the cross hairs of a crazed man. Jonathan and him have already pulled out their guns but don't dare shoot because of the struggle going on between him and Clary; niether one of them willing to risk firing and accidentally shooting her.

That is when Jace sees what is about to happen. Clary has spun out of his reach while he clutched onto her sleeve and he is shaking Maia off of his arm. Maia falls to the floor with a thud just as the Morgenstern men reach the middle of the dance floor. They grab up Clary and Maia and shield them with their bodies as they pull out their guns and he hears Jonathan scream "Don't shoot." because he sees what is about to happen as well.

Izzy, who was knocked down when the crazed man shook Maia off of his arm, is just getting to her feet after being knocked over and kicking the man's foot and causing him to stumble a little. He recovers quickly and in the blink of an eye, has pulled Izzy up by her hair and placed a gun to her head.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading and don't forget to review and follow!_


	15. Chapter 15

"Nobody move!" the large man shouts. "Put your guns down or the pretty girl dies!"

"Do it!" Jace shouts. "That's my sister! Everyone put you guns down!" Panic wraps itself around Jace's body then. He looks quickly over to where Clary is being pushed behind her men and sees her struggling to get to him. They lock eyes for a moment and he tells her with his eyes to stay there. She seems to understand and nods before she stops fighting them to try and get to Jace.

"Go ahead." Jonathan says coolly. "Put them down." His men then obey his order and they all slowly lower their guns to the floor before slowly standing back up and raising their hands in the air.

The man's arm is wrapped tightly around Izzy's neck but instead of looking scared, she looks thoroughly annoyed with the whole situation. "You are tearing my dress." she says through her gritted teeth and he presses the barrel of the gun harder into her temple.

"And I will kill you if you don't shut up." he says back to her.

"No you won't." she tells him in her most unaffected voice. "You need me. I am your only bargaining chip. You are the one that is going to die tonight."

"I said _SHUT UP_!" he screams and tightens his hold around her neck. Her face turns a little red as her airway is cut off and her hands come up to grip his large arm that has her held to him.

"Okay!" Jonathan says menacingly to him. "What do you want?"

The man's eyes shoot to where Clary is and he glares deeply at her. "She took my brother last week and told me that he would be returned when my debt was paid. When I gave her the money today, she told me that I had forgotten to pay the interest too. She never told me about the fucking interest!"

"His name is Damon and his brother is Derrick." Clary says over the shoulder of one of his men.

"Listen, Damon," Jonathan says with anger and disgust dripping from his voice, "...when you don't pay on time, it is like a loan that you took out from us. And with loans, there is always interest. It's not her fault that you are an idiot and didn't know that."

"That's bullshit!" Damon shouts at Jonathan while digging the gun harder into a now barely conscious Izzy. Jace can tell that she has started to panic a little as she takes short pants instead of full breaths because of his arm around her throat. Her fingers are digging desperately into the man's arm and her eyes are starting to water. "I want my brother delivered here or I kill this bitch!" His biceps flex and Izzy's air is cut off even more and her eyes widen with fear.

Jace feels another roll of panic shoot through him and takes a tiny step forward. His movement gains the attention of the crazed man and his eyes leave Jonathan and move to him. That was a very big mistake for him. Jonathan produces a knife in such a swift motion that Jace's brain doesn't even register the movement until the knife is flying through the air. It lands with a sickening squish of soft tissue in the man's right eye before Jace can even move his hand toward the other gun he keeps hidden in the back of his pants.

The man's face goes slack and he sways on his feet still holding onto Izzy before he starts to fall backwards. The moment the man tilts anything less than upright, Jonathan is there and is catching Izzy while simultaneously unwrapping the man's arm from around her neck. Jace has no idea how someone as big and muscular as Jonathan moved so blindingly fast across the dance floor to catch her. For a split second, his thoughts are occupied with appreciation and slight fear at seeing just how lethal Jonathan Morgenstern really is. And here he thought he was a bad-ass and Jonathan is throwing knives with precision and rescuing damsels in distress.

His thoughts are quickly pulled back to the present moment when he hears Clary's voice say something to her men. He is then pushing everyone out of the way and finds her in the next few seconds. His hands come up to cup her face gently as he looks down into her eyes with worry. "Are you okay?" he asks gently.

"I'm fine." she replies with her normal voice. "A little pissed about my dress being ruined but other than that, I'm perfectly fine."

He huffs out a small breathy laugh at her answer before pulling her face to meet his. He gives her a quick but forceful kiss before pulling back and letting go of her face. "How is Izzy?" Clary asks. Jace turns his head and finds Izzy still wrapped in the circle of Jonathan's arms. They are staring into each other's eyes, seemingly in their own little world. There is a look on Izzy's face that he has never seen before. She almost looks...impressed. Izzy, who he has known since he was five years old and has never been impressed by anything since her father performed a magic trick where he made a coin disappear into her ear. She actually looks thoroughly impressed. Both of them are breathing heavily while their eyes sparkle at each other as they completely ignore the chaos around them.

"Well, would you look at that." Clary says in an amused voice as she watches her brother and Izzy. Jonathan still has her body pressed tightly against his where he pulled her out of the man's arms and she seems perfectly content to be there.

"Izzy!" he hears Alec say worriedly. She doesn't take her eyes off of Jonathan's until Alec says her name again. "Izzy! Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?" His voice is laced with panic and Izzy's hand comes up to lightly touch her throat. She looks back to Jonathan and gives him a shy smile as she slowly disentangles herself from his arms. Once again, Jace is surprised to see a look on Izzy's face that is rarely seen. Shyness.

"I'm fine." she says in a soft voice as Alec reaches her and wraps her in a gentle hug and Max quickly follows with one of his own before stepping back. "I promise I'm fine."

"I'm still taking you to a doctor." Alec says sternly as he lets her go.

"We have a doctor on call." Jonathan chimes in and looks to Alec. His voice is softer than Jace thought it could ever be and there is tenderness in his eyes. "I'll send for him and he'll be here in less than five minutes."

"Oh." Alec says looking to Jonathan. "Um...thanks. For protecting her and killing him." His voice is a little unsure but the gratitude he feels is clear in his voice.

"Anytime." Jonathan says with a smile and runs a hand through his hair nervously before looking back to Izzy. "I would never want a hair on her head to be harmed."

Izzy actually blushes then. _Izzy...blushes_. A small smile appears on her lips and then she is looking down at her feet. "Thanks. For saving me." she says lowly and one side of his mouth turns up in a genuine soft smile before saying, "Why don't you come back here and sit down." He wraps an arm gently around her waist and starts to guide her back to their private area even though the club has now cleared of everyone except them and the Morgenstern men.

"Shit, Izzy." Max says as he joins her on the other side. "Are you sure you are okay? That was pretty intense."

"I'm fine." she tells him with a hint of annoyance in her voice at having to repeat herself.

Clary and Jace remain where they are as the group passes them without a glance in their direction. "What the hell just happened?" Jace says as he looks at Jonathan's hand on the small of Izzy's back.

"I think we just witnessed the start of something beautiful." Clary says wistfully and he looks down to see her smiling warmly at the two people in question. "They will make a beautiful couple."

"Oh, jeez." Jace mutters under his breath. Even though Clary can be this big, bad crime boss that inspires fear wherever she goes, she can also be a giddy little teenage girl. She sighs heavily and leans her head to rest on his shoulder as she smiles and watches Jonathan and Izzy interact while ignoring everything and everyone around them.

* * *

 **Five days later...**

"Alright dad. When do you think you and mom will be able to?" Jace asks his father on the other line of the phone. "This is like the forth time I've asked in the past week."

"I don't know son." Stephen says distractedly. "I am pretty busy this week and next."

"Then pass some of the work to me." Jace offers. "I really want you and Mom to get to know Clary but it seems like every time I bring up getting together for a dinner or something, you are suddenly busy and have to hang up."

"You're being paranoid." his father says flatly. "I just...have a lot of work to do. That being said, I have to go. I'll talk to you later."

The line goes dead and Jace brings the phone away from his ear and looks at the 'call ended' flashing on the screen with annoyance before tucking it into his pocket just as Clary hangs up her phone with Maia.

"So, you are sure you don't know what he wants to talk about?" Jace asks Clary for the millionth time.

"I've told you like twelve times already." Clary says tiredly as they walk up the steps to her family's mansion. "I don't know. He just called last night and said that he wanted to see the both of us today. You should remember that. I was with you."

"I know." Jace says back to her. "I just hate not knowing what I am walking into."

"Everything will be fine." Clary reassures him. "It's just my dad."

"Yeah." Jace scoffs. "It's just Valentine Morgenstern." he mimics her nonchalant tone and she reaches out and gives him a light punch in the side.

"Don't be such a baby." she scolds him. "Come on." Clary turns the knob and the door swings open widely. The first time Jace was here, he didn't exactly get to look around and see the grandeur of the place. White marble floors stretch the expanse of the first floor while the walls are painted the color of gold. Ornately carved statues frame the front door while gold trim accents almost every piece furniture. It is definitely a stereotypical mafia home. He would know. His father and mother's place looks almost exactly like this.

"He will be in his office." Clary says as she takes off her coat and tosses it onto a table by the door. Jace follows her lead and slides his jacket down his arms and folds it neatly before setting it on top of Clary's. Once that is done, Clary reaches out and takes his hand and leads the way over to a door a little further into the foyer. She raps on the door three times before turning the knob and pushing the door open. "Right on time." he hears Valentine say as he looks up from his desk and takes his reading glasses off of his nose.

They step forward into the room and Jace takes note of how thick the doors are. They definitely aren't ordinary doors and he is assuming that the book lined walls that surround them aren't ordinary walls either. This room is probably some sort of safe room.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever." he hears a soft and very feminine voice say. He turns his head and spots Clary's mother over in the corner of the room. She is rising from her spot and sets down a large book that is filled with colorful paintings.

"Hey mom." Clary says and embraces her mother in a hug after stepping over to her.

"Come on in. Take a seat, Jace." Valentine says when the two women separate. Jace gives him a nod and walks forward and sits in one of the wing back chairs that sit opposite of him on the other side of his desk. "I'm sure you are wondering why I wanted to see the both of you this morning."

"I was wondering what it could possibly be about." Clary says as she sits in the seat next to Jace.

Valentine then takes a deep breath and looks to his wife who is walking around his desk. It looks like he is looking for something from her. Strength? Or maybe support? He couldn't pinpoint the emotion on his face exactly. "The last time we met," Valentine says as he looks away from Jocelyn and looks back to him, "I wasn't exactly...calm."

"That's an understatement." Clary mumbles under her breath and her mother and father give her a disapproving look. "Sorry." she says to them and Valentine turns his attention back to Jace.

"My wife and I have talked at length about your relationship with our daughter." he says as he leans forward and rests his elbows on his desk. "And while sometimes I don't like to admit it, she is an adult and is capable of making her own decisions. If that means she wants to be with you and that she trusts you, then I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. As much as it pains me to say this...I give the two of you my blessing to be together. I truly hope that this is the beginning of something that could help heal our families of the last fifty years."

Clary immediately jumps up with a huge smile on her lips and bounds around the desk. Her arms fly up and around her father's neck and she pulls him down to her for a hug. "Thank you so much, Daddy. I love you." he hears her say as she buries her face in his shoulder.

Jace rises from his seat and when Clary lets go of Valentine, he raises his arm across his desk in offer to shake his hand. Valentine looks down and sees and grabs his hand and shakes it sternly while looking into Jace's eyes and says, "Take care of my daughter or I'll kill you." If it were any other man, Jace would laugh because all father's say that to their daughter's boyfriends but don't really intend to kill him. But this is Valentine Morgenstern. He means what he says and doesn't make idle threats.

"I will sir. I swear it." he replies fervently. Valentine then lets go of his hand and lets out a long breath of hair. "Now that that is taken care of, would you like to join us for Sunday dinner tomorrow night?" His face is open and inviting and Jace suddenly feels a sort of relief wash over him.

"I'd love to." Jace answers and smiles warmly at the man across from him. He watches Valentine and Jocelyn as they beam at their daughter's happy face for a moment and he is suddenly angry. Why haven't his parents done this for him? Why has his father still not said out loud that they have his blessing? He said that he would give Clary 'a chance' but his actions have said otherwise. His father has barely talked to him.

In that moment, watching them, he knows that to be truly happy, that has to change.

"Sweetheart?" he says quietly to Clary once she walks from around the desk and joins him at his side, "I just remembered that I have something to take care of. I'm so sorry but I have to go."

"That's okay." she says back to him. "My mom wants to show me her latest painting. You go take care of whatever you need to. I'll be here."

"You're the best." he tells her and leans in for a quick peck on the lips.

"And don't you forget it." she replies with a smile and he turns and leaves.

Jace is back in Manhattan in record time thanks to his fast and aggressive driving and is pulling out the key to his parent's place. He knows they are here because both of their personal cars were in the underground parking garage below the building. He took off so fast that he left his two guards behind in the SUV they were driving somewhere on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Once the elevator doors open, he is practically running to his parent's door and shoving the key in the lock. The door flies open and he hears laughing coming from the kitchen. "Mom! Dad!" he shouts in their direction. "I need to talk with the both of you."

"Is everything okay?" his mother's concerned voice says as she appears from around the corner to the kitchen.

"No." Jace replies harshly. "Where's Dad?"

"I'm right here." Stephen says as he follows his wife out and into the living room where Celine and Jace are. "What are you so wound up about?"

"I just came from Valentine's." Jace states. "Oh, and I also see just how busy you are." He looks pointedly at the apron around his father's waist where there are stains from cooking.

His father's face becomes very serious then. "What happened? Did things go south with the girl? I knew they would." His tone is smug and all Jace wants to do in this moment is punch his father.

"No. They did not. And her name is Clary." Jace says angrily. "You should get used to calling her that because she isn't going anywhere."

"Okay." Celine says as she steps forward and places her hands on her son's shoulders gently. She waits until Jace looks down and into her eyes. "What is the problem then?"

"Valentine and his wife gave me their blessing to be with Clary." Jace says while looking directly at his father. Stephen's face sours then and he huffs out a breath of air in a sort of scoff. "Don't be like that." Jace tells him. "It was genuine and I realized something in that moment when he looked me in the eyes and told me to take care of his daughter."

"And what's that?" Stephen asks indignantly.

"I realized that she would never get the same treatment from you." he says bitterly. "Clary has never wronged you. She is brilliant and kind and strong and everything you and Mom have ever wanted for me. She makes me insanely happy and I am madly in love with her. But none of that matters to you because you will never see her as anything other than her name. I've tried and tried to get all of us together but you refuse to do it." His eyes have turned into slits as he talked and his voice started to drip with disdain the longer he spoke.

"Jace." his mother says softly. "That's not true. I am happy that you found someone to love and I want to get to know her."

"But _he_ isn't and he never will be." Jace grits out through his teeth while staring at his father.

Stephen looks a little taken back by his son's last words. "Son." he says with a tinge of hurt in his voice. "I am happy for you but...I just wish that you had found that with someone else. _Anyone_ else than a Morgenstern." His face twists and a look of disgust curls his face when he says that, even though he tries to hide it. "You can find love with someone else if you try."

"That's exactly what I just said." Jace spits angrily at his father. "You will never give her a chance because to you, she will never be the woman I love. She will always be just a Morgenstern. A representation of a past that she had nothing to do with." Jace turns and starts to walk out but turns around before getting too far. "And you know what? She deserves better than what you will give her. Don't worry. I won't bring her back here so you will have to suffer through her presence again. And since she is with me seventy-five percent of my time and practically living with me, I guess that means that you won't see much of me either. Whatever business you have for me, send it through Wayland and he will get it to me."

He takes a little bit of satisfaction at the dumbfounded look on his father's face before turning on his heels again and stomping to the door. "Jace! Come back!" he hears his mother shout but it's too late. The door slams shut behind him and he is gone.

Once the door is slammed shut, Celine turns her gaze from her son's retreating figure and onto her husband. Her eyes have turned angry and her temperature has started to rise. "What the _hell_ , Stephen?" she says with anger to him. "Why didn't you say something? Why didn't you stop him?"

"What was I supposed to say?" he shouts at Celine. "That I am happy that he is with that bastard's daughter?"

"Yes!" she shouts back at him. "You know how much I worried about him. Worried that he was somehow messed up. That he was unable to have a normal relationship with a woman because we had somehow failed as parents. Worried that our life style affected him to where he didn't have the ability to love and be selfless."

Stephen huffs out an exasperated breath and turns away from his wife, trying to escape her furious gaze. "And I told you you were being ridiculous when you said those things."

"And now," she continues like he didn't speak, "..he finally found a woman that he fell head over heels in love with. He found 'the one' and you..." she spits out and then walks around him to his front to face him, "...you won't even give the girl a chance. You tolerated her for one meal and ever since then, you find excuse after excuse not see her. I've talked to Jace. I know that he has wanted to bring her over or for us to go to dinner with them. You always find a way out of it even after you told him that you would give her a chance."

"I am still trying to get used to the idea of her around me and in my home." he snaps back at her. "I don't care what Jace says..."

Celine quickly cuts him off before he can finish his sentence. "That's right! You have never cared what Jace wanted. You only cared that he went along with the life you laid out for him and that he did what he was told. Now that he has started to find his own path with the woman he so very obviously loves, you can't accept it. You aren't willing to invite her into our lives and find out what is so special about her that she managed to do the impossible. She managed to turn our son into a full grown man from the giant boy that he was before her. I only spent ten minutes with her and I could see just how special she was. I could see the love in his eyes so very clearly when he would look at her and vice versa. You were too blinded by your hatred of her name, which she has no control over, to see past it. To see that she is the only thing our son wants. The only thing he has ever asked us to accept for him."

She takes a deep breath and steps back away from her husband. "You will fix this." she orders him. "He is our only son; our only child. I will not turn him away and I will not allow you to do the same because of your ability to out-stubborn everyone on this Earth. Take a minute and think about what you will be losing if you don't do what your son has asked of you. He could one day possibly have children with her and I _will not_ be denied the joy of seeing my grandchildren. I will leave you if I have to. He is your son. If she is what makes him feel happy and complete, then I will love her like he does. You would be wise to do the same if you want to keep your family in tact. I love you, Stephen, but I love our son more."

Her shoulders slump tiredly from the emotional tirade she just went on while her eyes grow sad. After a few moments, she turns and walks to their bedroom where she shuts and locks the door. Stephen stands in the middle of the living room for a while just staring at the place his son and his wife just were before walking to his office and closing himself in.

* * *

The next morning he is woken up when he throws his arm across his bed and finds it empty where Clary should be. He opens his eyes to confirm what his his hands felt and she is definitely gone. "Clary?" he says loudly.

"In the kitchen!" he hears her shout and smiles. He throws his legs out of bed and slips on some house pants and walks out of his room. The moment the air hits him from the rest of his place, he crinkles his nose up. There is a sort of burnt sour smell that sets his stomach a little off. "Baby! What's that smell?" he shouts as he walks towards the kitchen.

"You have perfect timing. I just got done making us breakfast!" she shouts back and he stops in his tracks. 'Oh no. Please, oh please God, don't let that smell be the breakfast she cooked.' he says fervently to himself. Just the smell alone is making him sick. He doesn't even want to imagine what tasting that smell would be like.

He starts to take a deep breath to gain his composure and smooth out his face of the worried look there, but quickly stops. Purposefully taking more of that smell into his nose would definitely not be a good thing if he wanted to keep whatever food Clary made down.

He walks across his living room and comes around the wall to the kitchen and plasters a smile on his face. The moment he lays eyes on the kitchen, his eyes widen with horror. It's a disaster. There are egg shells all over the place and what he thinks is supposed to be bacon sitting on a plate by the stove. He thinks it's bacon because it is black and covered with some sort of clear syrupy liquid. There are muffins that don't look fully cooked and she is pouring some clumpy green liquid that he has no idea what it is out of a pot and into two bowls.

She sees him then and smiles brightly at him. 'At least she still looks good' he says to himself as he scans her from head to toe. She is wearing one of his plain white t-shirts and he thinks underwear underneath. "The oatmeal just got done." she says with a smile and that's when Jace realizes the lumpy liquid that she was pouring into the bowls is oatmeal...even though it is green. "It's kale flavored oatmeal. Izzy gave me the recipe and said it was delicious."

'Fuck!' he says to himself in his head. Izzy is the _worst_ cook ever and if Clary got tips from her... "Everything looks great, baby." he says and forces himself to walk further into the kitchen where the smell of his imminent death is at it's worst. He wraps his arms around her waist from behind and kisses her neck. "What's for breakfast?" he asks with trepidation in his bones.

She relaxes into him and her hands slide up his arms. "I love your tattoos." she says as she traces one of them slowly. After a minute, she seems to snap out of her trance and answers his question. "I remember you told me that you like syrup on your bacon." she says and points to the charred strips of meat on the counter. 'Wrong. It was on sausage.' he thinks but doesn't dare correct her. She obviously put a lot of thought and effort into this meal and he doesn't want to break her heart. "But all you had in the cabinet was this corn syrup so I used that instead of traditional syrup. There are fried eggs and these are banana nut muffins." she says pointing to each item.

When his eyes land on the eggs, he finds the source of the horrid smell. If she used the eggs that were in his fridge, then that means that they were bad. The last time he bought eggs was August and it's now late November. He quickly curses at himself for not cleaning out his fridge more often. "Everything looks great." he says in his most convincing voice. She seems to buy it when she turns her head and places a kiss on his lips. If he makes it through this breakfast and eats everything on his plate with a smile, he will give himself an Oscar for his amazing accomplishment and acting skills.

"Go sit down." she orders him. "I'll bring you a plate."

He takes a deep breath though his mouth and then drags his feet to the small table around the corner. He closes his eyes and tries to prepare himself for what he is about to do. "I love my girlfriend. I love my girlfriend." he chants in a whisper to himself. "I will eat what she made...even if it puts me in the hospital."

"Here you go." Clary says close to him and he opens his eyes and plasters a smile on his face when he looks down and sees the incredibly large plate of food. "That's a lot of food." he says to her, swallowing past the lump in his throat.

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." she tells him knowingly. "I want you to have a lot of energy for today."

"Why is that?" he asks her and her smile turns mischievous. "Because...I bought something at the lingerie store yesterday while you were gone."

He raises his eyebrows in surprise and is suddenly hungry...but not for food. "Why don't we skip breakfast and you can show me what you got?" he says praying that she says yes.

"Aren't you hungry?" she asks. "You barely touched you dinner last night and seemed really distracted."

His thoughts are then pulled to the conversation he had with his parents yesterday and he quickly shoves that away. His stomach then betrays him in the worst way possible. It growls loudly. "I guess I am hungry." he says with an anxious look down at the plate in front of him where the food is stacked high.

She leans forward and places a kiss on his cheek and then sits down across from him with her own significantly smaller plate. "The bacon is a little overcooked but I think it will taste fine." she says self consciously and he gives her a reassuring smile.

He then reaches down and picks up a piece of said bacon while making eye contact with her. "I'm sure it will be delicious." he tells her and she smiles sweetly at him and then looks expectantly at the strip of black bacon that is dripping with disgusting clear syrup that was only meant to be used for cooking and not as a topping. He steels himself and then forces his hand to move closer to his mouth.

He moves his eyes to Clary across from him, unable to look at what he is about to put in his mouth, and closes his lips around the half soggy, half crispy piece of meat. Unfortunately, the taste is worse than the way it looks. The charred bacon clashes horribly with the sticky liquid it is soaked in; the two tastes combining to turn his favorite breakfast food into something he will have nightmares about. "Mmmmmm." he moans to her with a small smile and her expectant smile turns radiant.

"I'm glad you like it." she tells him and then picks up her spoon and grabs a heaping serving of the green substance she called oatmeal earlier. "Where are your eggs?" he asks her.

"Oh. I don't like eggs." she tells him. "Just the smell of them turns my stomach. I don't know how people like this smell." She makes a show of sniffing the air and cringes. "But I will make eggs for you every morning because you like them."

"That's so sweet, baby." he tells her and then swallows the lump in his throat at the thought of having to stomach her cooking everyday of his life.

Once the runny green liquid hits Clary's tongue, her nose scrunches up and her face turns sour. "Ewww. Whatever you do, don't eat the oatmeal. Izzy was wrong. It's awful." she says while setting her spoon back into the bowl.

'Oh thank God.' he says to himself as he shoves his bowl of it away from him. One less thing to try and choke down. "That's too bad." he says to her and shoves the food around with his fork on his plate. He is trying to decide what he wants to try next. His eyes land on the banana muffin that looks gooey in the middle and decides that that is his best shot at something remotely edible. It smells good but just doesn't exactly look cooked all of the way through. His assumptions are correct when he takes a big bite and the mixture in the middle oozes into his mouth. "Mmmm." he moans again and smiles at her.

"You like it?" she asks eagerly.

"It's delicious." he tells her as the substance slides down his throat. "I think they could have cooked a little longer but they are still good."

"I thought they looked a little soft in the middle." she says thoughtfully and picks up her muffin to inspect it. "Why don't you try the eggs?" Clary suggests. "I know that they are fully cooked.

Jace looks down at the eggs on his plate which are the source of the smell that is permeating every room in his place now and his stomach turns violently. "Alright." he says and steels himself again as he stabs the smallest piece he can find. She is watching him expectantly and the look of hope on her face is what drives him to move the fork with the speared embryo on it closer to his mouth. Just as it touches his lips, there is a knock on his door.

He immediately lowers the fork away from his face and sets it down, thanking his lucky stars that someone was there. He just might kiss whoever it is for saving him. "I'll see who that is." he says quickly and jumps up. "It's probably just Max popping it to tell me he's here."

The speed at which Jace's bare feet slap against the hard floor is the only give away to just how excited he is to get away from the food Clary made. Once to the door, he swings it open and is taken by complete surprise. It's his father. "Hello Jace." Stephen says while fidgeting with a hat in his hands. "Can I come in?"

"Now isn't the best time." Jace says coolly to him. "Clary made breakfast." He starts to close the door but his father sticks out his hand before it can shut. "Please, Jace. I want to talk."

Jace is surprised by his father's words. He has only ever said please to him a handful of times in his life. "Fine. You have two minutes." he tells him and moves aside so he can come in. Stephen takes a few steps in and wrinkles his nose at the offending smell that is stirred up in the air with every movement they make. "What's that smell?" Stephen asks and Jace just glares at him as he folds his arms across his bare chest.

"Who is it Jace?" he hears Clary's soft voice say as she appears around the corner and into the foyer area of the open floor plan of his penthouse. Both men turn to look at her and her eyes widen in surprise. "Mr. Herondale." she says with surprise while tugging at the hem of his shirt that she is wearing; somehow trying to make it longer. "I didn't know you were coming over." When she realizes that the shirt won't somehow magically grow another few inches, she then turns her attention to her hair and runs her fingers through it trying to smooth it down.

"This visit wasn't planned." Stephen says looking utterly unsurprised over at Clary. "I just stopped in so I could talk with Jace about something important."

"Do you want me to go into the bedroom to give the two of you some privacy?" Clary offers and points to his bedroom.

"That'd be great." Stephen says at the same time Jace says, "No. Stay there."

Clary's brows furrow as she looks between the two men in confusion while her hands join together in front of her. "Umm..." she says after an awkward few seconds of Jace and his father staring at each other, "I'll just go over there." Jace looks to her and is about to tell her to stay but she raises her hands and says, "It's okay. I'll just go put some more appropriate clothes on." and disappears behind his bedroom door.

"You only have one minute left." Jace says bitterly to his father and clenches his jaw.

Stephen, who looks unusually tense, looks down at his hands and turns over the hat in his hands repeatedly. "I thought about what you said yesterday when you came by." Stephen says and looks up to his son. "You are right. I have been avoiding seeing her again. I still don't want you to be with her because she is a Morgenstern. I have been hoping that things with her would go away."

"But they're not." Jace says as he grows angry. Why did his father come here? To tell him the things he already knows and make him even madder?

"No." his father responds. "I can see that now." He looks pointedly at his son and Jace can see that he is trying to be sincere. "I was wrong, Jace. It kills me to admit it, but I was wrong. You're right. It's not her fault she is who she is no more than it's your fault that you are my son. She didn't ask to be who she is just like you didn't. I can also see that you meant what you said when you told me that she wasn't going anywhere and that you love her. I didn't want to admit that I saw that, but I did."

Jace relaxes his stance a little and unclenches his jaw as his taught muscles relax to back to normal all over his body. This is not what he was expecting to hear from his father. "You know I don't like to admit when I am wrong." Stephen continues. "You are just like me in that matter. Admitting I am wrong makes me feel like a failure and I absolutely hate that. I'm sorry and I am ready now to really mean what I said when I told you that I would give her a chance. I didn't mean it before, but I mean it now. If she is special enough to get you to settle down and be faithful, then she is worth the effort for me to get to know her. I want to be in your life and if she is a part of it, than I will accept her. You are my only son and I don't want my stubbornness and preconceived notions of who she is because of her name come between us."

"Do you really mean it this time?" Jace asks his father with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

Stephen looks into his son's eyes and there is no denying that he means what he says. "I mean it, son. I want to be a part of your life and I want to get to know the woman you fell in love with. Regardless of what her last name is."

Jace relaxes his stance and unfolds his arms from across his chest and runs a hand anxiously through his hair. "Alright." Jace says. "What do we do now?"

"Well," his father says with an undertone of hope deep in his voice, "..I know you are having dinner with the Morgensterns tonight but how about you have breakfast with me and your mother. She is waiting in the car downstairs."

"We aren't exactly ready to go anywhere." Jace says looking down at himself with no shirt on.

"That's alright. We didn't expect you to be. We'll wait." Stephen says looking over at the bedroom door where Clary is.

"Okay. Just give us thirty minutes. I need to take a shower."

"Alright. Just come down when you're ready and we can all ride together. I've got the limo today." Stephen suggests and Jace nods. "Okay. We'll hurry." he says and his father leaves through his front door leaving Jace standing there stunned. Never has his father talked like that to him. Sounding so sincere and regretful and apologetic. That is not like him to admit when he was wrong and he knows that it took a lot for him to come up here and swallow his pride to say those things to him.

His attention is pulled away from his thoughts when he hears the door to his bedroom click open and sees Clary sticking her head out of the room. She is wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt with her hair pulled up into a bun. "Is it okay for me to come out?" she asks looking around for any sign of his father.

"Yes, you can." he tells her as he walks over to her and wraps his arms around her waist. "Is everything okay?" she asks worriedly as her hands come up and wrap around his neck.

"Everything is great." he tells her. "Although, I told my father we would go to breakfast with him and my mom. I hope that's okay."

"That sounds fine." she tells him and looks over to the table where their food is. "I guess I will just have to cook you breakfast another day."

He smiles at her words and pulls her in for a kiss even though a horrible dread was spreading through his body at the thought of having to go through with eating whatever food she made again. He'll just have to make sure that he has fresh food in his fridge and maybe leave a cookbook lying around on the counter randomly and pray that she reads it.

* * *

 _Just a warning, there will be a time jump for the next chapter and the rest of the story. It will skip a few months so be prepared._ _I have had this story line planned for a long time and I am so excited that the time is coming for me to put it into action. Yay!_

 _As always, thanks a ton for taking time out of your busy day to read my story and don't forget to follow and review!_


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry if it has mistakes. I am trying to hurry and get this chapter posted for y'all so forgive me if there is a mistake.**

* * *

 **Three months later...**

Jace and Clary walk to the front door of the Morgenstern mansion hand in hand and feeling exceptionally stuffed after the large dinner they just ate. Clary turns around and smiles at her father as his and Jace's laughter die down from a conversation they are having.

"Tell me when you get to chapter 10 in the book." Valentine says to Jace with a warm smile, referencing a book that he recommended for him to read. Jace is actually really enjoying it so far. The book just so happens to be popular with teenagers which is something neither of them will admit. Every time Clary and Jocelyn try to poke fun at them for reading a teen book, they retort with the fact that it has vampires and warlocks among other mythical creatures in it. That in turn makes the two women laugh harder at their denial that they have the same guilty pleasure of teen angst novels. "I have to know what you think about what happens. I was quite shocked when Emma and Jules..."

Jace quickly cuts him off. "Don't tell me! I want to be surprised."

"Alright." Valentine says with resignation. "But you have to hurry up and read it. I can't talk to anyone but you about it because Jocelyn refuses to read the damn book."

"I know how you feel." Jace says and shoots a pointed look at Clary.

She rolls her eyes heavily as Jace helps her slip on her heavy coat. "You two are such old women sometimes." she mutters and Jocelyn laughs lightly and nods her head in agreement as Clary reaches for the door and opens it to reveal the fresh late February snowfall from that afternoon. "I'll see you tomorrow mom. Be there at four."

"I will. I won't forget." Jocelyn replies as she leans forward and places a kiss on her daughter's cheek. Jace and Valentine familiarly shake hands with a smile as the couple steps out onto the front steps and shuts the door behind them. Jace holds a hand out to help Clary down the icy steps and when they finally get to his car, she slides in the passenger seat and turns on the seat warmer while Jace hurries over to the driver's seat and turns the engine over.

He pulls out to the street and they start to head back to his place in comfortable silence. The music from the radio is softly playing in the background as Clary looks out the window. Jace reaches over and takes her hand, like he always does when driving, and she smiles at the now subconscious action of his. She doubts he even realizes he does it anymore.

The past four months have been the best of her life. Her relationship with Jace started out a little rough around the edges but now, things couldn't be better. Very surprisingly, her parents loved Jace once they spent more time with him. Him and Valentine actually have a lot in common. They are both serious neat freaks and both are stubborn beyond belief and hard and sharp on the outside until it comes to the women they love. Then they both turn into love sick puppies. Jocelyn loves him because of his charm and she says that she likes the way he looks at her daughter. Like Clary is everything to him. That, she says, is what sold her on him.

And Clary's relationship with Jace's parents is progressing wonderfully. She absolutely loves Celine and Celine seems to love her back. Stephen was hard at first. Never knowing exactly what to say in front of her and seemed content with just being silent and studying her. It took him a month and a half to warm up to her. Since then, it's been great. He seems genuinely happy that she is with Jace and seems to like her a lot now. He gave her a hug for the first time last week when they went to dinner with Celine and him. It took her and Jace by surprise but she quickly returned it with a warm embrace of her own. His eyes aren't as distant as they once were either. Now, they actually remind her of the way Jace's eyes sparkle every now and then when he's really happy.

"How are those cooking classes coming along?" Jace asks, breaking the comfortable silence between them.

"They're great." she replies with a smile. "I'm really glad that your mother got them for me and her for Christmas. I have really gotten to know her really well and learned a lot. I was a little nervous at the time when she got them for us because we would be spending so much time together, but everything seemed to work out great."

"I knew they would." Jace says and gives her a crooked smile that she absolutely loves.

"She told me that the lessons were your idea." she tells him and he tenses for a moment, afraid of what she will say next. "That you said that they were a way for us to get to know each other without putting a lot of pressure on having to have a conversation. I think it was a good idea on your part."

Jace breathes a sigh of relief when she says that she thinks it was a good idea when really, he just couldn't take her cooking anymore. God knows he loves her but she sure as hell couldn't cook box macaroni and cheese to save her life. It was a win-win situation for him. Clary and his mother get to know one another better, and he would get to stop spending the entire next day on the toilet every time she got the urge to cook. She has really improved and now her food is edible. Not fantastic, but good and edible. It's truly one of the better ideas he has ever had.

"What are you grinning about?" Clary asks as she looks over to him. "That's your mischievous grin."

"I didn't know I had a mischievous grin." he remarks back and sends her a wink.

She narrows her eyes at him playfully and lightly smacks his arm. "Tell me what you're thinking." she says sternly to him.

"I was just thinking about what movie we are going to watch tonight at home and not make it through till the end of it."

"That's because you have this inability to snuggle without sliding your hand under my shirt to touch the skin on my back." she says chastising him. "And then that leads to me leaning into you further and pressing my face into your shirtless chest, because you are always shirtless. That then causes your hand to slide up slowly without you thinking about it and then that leads to..."

Jace cuts her off. "I can't help it." he says in a sort of whine. "Your skin is just so soft."

"And I love it when you drag your fingers lightly over the top of my skin." she replies. There is a moment as her and Jace looks at each other and then the air in the car starts to get thick. She looks away from him hurriedly and back out of the window before her thoughts can go any further and she takes a cleansing breath. "Why don't we invite Alec and Magnus over to watch with us. Then we'll have to finish the movie and keep our hands to ourselves."

"Okay." Jace says with a smile. "I haven't seen Alec in almost two weeks so it would be good to see him again. He's just always so damn busy lately."

"Magnus told me that he's been over at his place a lot lately and that he seems to be stressed out and a little depressed. Maybe this will be good for him. Get him to relax a little." Clary tells him as she pulls out her phone and calls up Magnus. He gladly agrees and she hears him yell at Alec to get dressed as he hangs up.

"They're coming." Clary tells Jace as they turn into the underground parking garage of his building.

* * *

Jace shuffles over to his front door in a hurry, sliding his bare feet on the wood floor as Clary pulls out two large bags of popcorn from the microwave. When he opens the door, Magnus' shirt practically blinds him. It's silver metallic and has caught the light coming from inside his penthouse perfectly and it is reflecting in his eyes. "Jeez Magnus." Jace says as he looks away. "Could you wear a normal shirt just once? Or at least one that won't blind me when I open my door."

"I'm going to pretend like you didn't just say that." Magnus says sounding offended as he walks in his apartment like he owns it. Alec smiles at Jace as he follows his boyfriend in.

"Long time, no see." Jace says with a manly hug and a clap on the back. "I've missed my friend." Jace hears Clary's voice greet Magnus as he finds her in the kitchen. "What have you been doing that's kept you so busy?"

Alec shrugs as Jace shuts the door and they make their way over to his couch. "Just a lot of work to do." Alec tells him sadly.

"What could be keeping you so busy though?" Jace ponders again. Everything with the business has been going great. "I'll have to tell dad to lay off of you a little. It's cutting into my manly bonding time." and he chuckles.

"No. No. Don't do that." Alec says a little worriedly. "I'll be fine. I'm sure the work load will ease up soon enough."

"So, what movie are we watching?" Magnus asks as him and Clary come out of the kitchen with her carrying two large bowls of popcorn and Magnus skillfully holding four beers.

"I wanted to watch The Notebook because I've never seen it and Izzy said it was amazing." Clary answers as she falls down onto the large couch facing the television.

Magnus' eyes go wide and he looks at her incredulously as he says, "You've never seen The Notebook? That's frankly un-American and we must remedy this immediately."

"Shit." Jace mumbles to Alec and takes a swig of the beer Magnus just handed him. "I was hoping that you and Magnus would help me change her mind. Now I am going to have to sit through the ultimate chick flick."

"I'm on the same boat with you on that one." Alec says with a sad smile and nudges Jace with his elbow. "Izzy made me watch it once and when I fell asleep in the middle of it, she made me wake up and start it all over stating that 'I wasn't putting my heart into it.' "

"You poor bastard." Jace says seriously and then breaks out in a sad and almost humorless laugh that Alec returns. "At least chick flicks make Clary feel frisky. I know I'll be getting some tonight." Jace adds on with a wink and a suggestive wag of his brows and Alec looks away from him over to Magnus and Clary as he takes a sip of his beer. "That's good." Alec says and walks over to sit down on the other side of the couch as Clary.

Jace is literally dying of boredom as he tries to keep his eyes open while the two main characters row a boat back to their dock while it's pouring rain. Clary is leaned against his chest while is arm is wrapped around her. She hasn't taken her eyes off the screen in over an hour, not even to glance at him like she always does, and he lets his head fall back and land on the back of the couch. There is a rush of dramatic music and he leans his head forward to see the two characters arguing. Jace then looks over to see Magnus leaning forward on the edge of the couch mouthing the words of the characters. "It wasn't over. It still isn't over." the man on the television screen says as Magnus mouths along and he hears Clary suck in a ragged breath as he feels his shirt get wet from the tears she just started crying.

He feels a pair of eyes on him and looks over to see Alec looking at him. He gestures towards his boyfriend, whose eyes are glued to the screen as they sparkle with unshed tears, and then rolls his eyes heavily. Jace has to repress a laugh and smiles at his friend, feeling the exact same way. "Kill me now." Jace mouths at Alec. His friend then holds up a finger gun and fires it at Jace who lets his head fall back dramatically on the couch while his eyes close in mock death. When he opens them back up, Alec is trying not to laugh as he looks at him and then Jace can't help it anymore.

His stomach starts to shake with silent laughter, making Clary's head bounce lightly up and down where it is rested on his chest. She pinches the skin on his abdomen and says, "Don't laugh at me." thinking he was laughing at her crying.

"I'm not laughing at you, baby." he tells her. "I was laughing at Alec."

"Well, stop. This is a beautiful moment in the movie." she says in a chastising tone. When he looks back over to Alec, he is pointing at him and laughing because he got pinched. Jace picks up a piece of popcorn and throws it at his friend trying to hit him in the head and Alec deftly catches it in his mouth to Jace's dismay. He was aiming for his stupid blue eyes, hoping the butter and salt from the popcorn would burn them for laughing at him.

Jace picks up another piece of popcorn and throws it at Alec who catches it in his mouth again. Jace smiles and picks up another one and throws it in a perfect arch up in the air and Alec watches it with concentration and catches it after a considerable amount of hang time. Magnus and Clary are completely oblivious to what is going on behind them as the two men find a way to finally entertain each other during what they feel is a torturous movie experience.

Jace throws another piece of popcorn and hits Alec in the eye. He quietly laughs at him while he rubs his eye and then he is trying again. The next piece thrown goes wild and ends up flying in front of the couch. Alec moves quickly to catch it with his mouth but ends up falling off of the couch in the process. He lunges forward and hits the ground while knocking into Magnus but at the same time, somehow manages to catch it.

Jace throws his fist in the air in triumph while Magnus and Clary look over to Alec with confusion. He props himself up on the floor with his elbows and gives Jace a celebratory fist pump back and a wide smile. "What the hell are you two doing?" Clary asks looking at Alec.

"Nothing. Just entertaining ourselves." Alec replies with a shrug and a smirk at Clary.

She huffs out a breath and Jace runs his hand up her arm and lowers his head to kiss her on the top of hers. "Sorry babe." he says to her. "We were trying to be inconspicuous. I was throwing popcorn into his mouth."

"Shhh. You're ruining this scene." Magnus says with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Clary picks up the remote and pauses the movie and turns back to Jace. "I know you are probably falling asleep and you haven't seen Alec in a while. Why don't the two of you go play pool or something in the game room. Magnus and I can hold each other during the movie."

"Yes we can. Come here you scrumptious little biscuit." Magnus says and he pulls her hand away from Jace's and tucks her under his arm. "We can't let them ruin the vibe of the movie. Shoo. Away with the two of you." he says and Jace rolls his eyes.

"I think I just got kicked out of my own living room." Jace says dryly but with a small smile as he pushes himself up from the couch. Clary turns to watch him as he stretches from sitting so long. Her eyes travel down to the exposed strip of perfectly sculpted stomach that his shirt reveals as he stretches out his arms over his head and she bites her lip with desire. She looks over to where Alec is standing next to Magnus and it seems he is looking at the same piece of skin she was just admiring. 'I guess I'm not the only one who appreciates how fine his body is.' she says to herself with a small quiet chuckle.

Alec then turns and leaves, following behind Jace as the two of them head over to his entertainment room. There is a pool table, a classic pac-man arcade game, and a couple of darts boards on the wall. "Shut the door." Jace says to Alec behind him. "I don't want the sound of you crying over your defeat in pool to bother them during their movie time."

Alec scoffs and smiles as he shuts the door behind him. Jace tosses him his own pool stick that he got his friend for when he comes over while Jace puts chalk on the end of his. "Did you forget that I kicked your ass last time?" Alec says confidently.

"That's because I was fall down drunk."

"No you weren't." Alec says in defense. "You had only had two drinks."

"Two _very_ strong drinks." Jace counters and Alec scoffs once again as he racks the balls. "How are things between you and Magnus going?"

"They're...going." Alec says as he lines up the cue ball and readies himself to break the cluster of balls.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jace asks.

"Everything is fine." he says as he hits the balls and a couple of them fall into the corner pockets. "It's just...he's got a lot of history with a _lot_ of people. I'm trying to look past it but he seems to be losing patience with me. Plus, I'm just not absolutely sure he's it for me. I just don't feel that connection that I know I would have if I was with 'the one'."

Jace lines up to take a shot and gets his striped ball in the side pocket as he says, "I thought you and Magnus were an odd couple at first but you seem to work really well together. You're more of an introvert and he is definitely not. He helps you come out of your shell and that is what you need." He looks up and sees Alec rub the back of his neck roughly in a sign of deep thought and walks over to him and places a hand on his shoulder. "Just don't give up yet." he says to him. "I think he really loves you. You don't want to give up something like that so easily."

Alec takes a deep breath as he closes his eyes and lets it out as Jace's hand slides from his shoulder. "Okay." Alec says when he opens his eyes back up to look at Jace.

The blonde turns around and starts to line up for his next shot. He misses and then turns back around to Alec with a smile. "Do you know why I've called you like seven times in the past few days? You haven't answered so I'm going to say no."

"I know." Alec says apologetically. "I've just been swamped with work."

"I know. You told me. I'm not mad." Jace says to reassure him. "But since you are here and we are alone..." Jace stops mid sentence and walks back around the pool table to where Alec just took his shot, and steps close to him. Alec seems to look confused and nervous at the same time as Jace leans in and says, "I need you to go with me somewhere. I need another opinion."

Alec looks slightly confused and says, "Where?"

"Ring shopping." Jace says with a small smile. For some reason, Alec doesn't seem to catch on and he furrows his brows and waits for him to continue. Jace rolls his eyes lightly and explains. "I want to ask Clary to marry me."

"What?!" Alec shouts in surprise. His brows pull together and he looks somewhat upset. Why though, Jace has no idea.

"Shhh." Jace says looking to the door. "Don't be so loud. I don't want her to come in here."

"Sorry." Alec says and looks Jace intently in the eyes. "Don't you think it's a little quick? You've only been with her for four months."

Jace runs his hand through his hair and sighs. "I know it's quick but I've known I wanted to marry her since the first week we were together. I don't see the point in waiting and delaying the inevitable."

Alec lays his pool stick against the table and Jace can see the 'serious Alec' take the place of 'friend Alec' as he lowers his head and looks up at him through his lashes with a concerned look. "Jace. Just slow down for a minute." he says to his friend. "I don't see why you can't wait a little while. Where's the rush?"

"There is no rush." Jace replies. "I just want to call her my wife."

"That's crazy, Jace. Just a few months ago, the thought of you marrying anyone, ever, never once crossed my mind and I'm sure it never crossed yours. I think it's just really fast. Especially for you."

Jace huffs out a slightly upset huff of air and pushes off of the pool table where he was leaning against it. "But that's the thing." he tells his friend. "I don't feel like it's fast. Everything with Clary has been so effortless and natural from the start. I know where our relationship is headed and I don't see the point in waiting. I know that she is the one for me. I love her more than I thought I could ever love someone and I know that we are going to be together forever. Our families have accepted our relationship and we both get along with the other's parents wonderfully. Everyone is working together and the past finally seems to be put in the past where it belongs."

Alec takes a few seconds to process what Jace said before he responds. "I just want you to make absolute sure about this before you do anything. I know you said you moved past it, but she is still a Morgenstern and they have a history of being treasonous liars."

"Oh, f _or fuck's sake_ , Alec." Jace says with annoyance clear in his voice. "I thought that you moved past this months ago. And didn't I just say that the past is finally being put in the past and staying there?" Jace looks at his friend with anger and steps away from him and moves to the other side of the pool table. Alec, realizing that he has made him mad, quickly tries to recover. "Okay. Okay." he tells him raising his hands, palms out, in a calming manor and apologetic manner. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"You're right. You shouldn't have." he snaps as his gold eyes flash at him.

"I...it's just that...you're my best friend, Jace." Alec says in a soft tone. "I don't want to see you make a mistake or get hurt. I'm just trying to look out for you."

Jace runs his hand through his hair again and takes a deep breath to calm himself. "I know." he tells him. "I know you are worried about me but you don't have to be. Clary is real and honest and I trust her with my life. I've never trusted a person like I trust her before...other than you, of course." he says and nods to Alec. "Yes, it's fast, but I love her like crazy and she loves me. I want to ask her to marry me and I need my friend by my side to help me."

"And I'll be there." Alec says to him reassuringly. "The news just took me by surprise is all. I wasn't expecting to have this conversation with you tonight."

"Well if you'd answer you phone, you would have. I was starting to think you were avoiding me." Jace tells him with chastising tone.

"No." Alec says to him. "I'm not. I have just been stressed and busy."

"Well screw work." Jace tells him. "I am your boss too and I am telling you to take it easier. I miss seeing my friend all the time."

"Then why don't we schedule a boys night, then?" Alec asks. "What are you doing tomorrow night?"

"Clary is going to a cooking class with my mom and her mom and then we are going to the ballet. What about...next Wednesday? I don't have anything planned then."

"I am supposed to have a date with Magnus but I can cancel." Alec answers.

"Are you sure?" Jace asks him. "You just said things were stressed between the two of you. I don't want you to create another problem..."

Alec cuts him off. "It won't be a problem. I need some time with my best friend also. So, it's a date?"

"Definitely." Jace says and reaches across the table to Alec and gives him a fist bump with a smile. "We can go ring shopping before and you can help me pick one out for Clary."

"Okay." Alec says sounding a little less thrilled than he was just a moment ago. "Just promise me that we will have plenty of genuine male bonding time. I am around someone who literally shines like a diamond twenty-four seven. I don't know how much more sparkle I can take before I go blind."

Jace lets out a loud laugh before he says, "I promise. We can go to Bat's bar and shut the place down."

"That sounds like a plan to me." Alec replies and the boys get back to playing their game.

* * *

"Hey mom." Clary says as her mom gets out of the back seat of her SUV and gives her a kiss on her cheek. "Are you ready to go in?"

"I am." Jocelyn tells her and places a hand on her daughter's arm comfortingly. "Don't be so stressed."

"How could you tell?" Clary asks with a forced smile. She rolls her neck to one side and rubs it for a second while she takes a deep breath to calm herself.

"Because you are incredibly tense. I can see it in your posture." Jocelyn says as she reaches up her other hands and grabs her shoulders. She shakes her daughter gently to try and get her to loosen her muscles. "Everything is going to be fine."

Clary closes her eyes and takes another deep breath and does her best to shake out her nerves. "This is just...really important to me...and to Jace. It's important that you and Celine get along. I know it is too much to ask for Dad and Stephen to hang out at this point but I figured you and Celine would make a good first step towards progress and making that happen eventually. Not to mention, it's a public place."

"I know, darling." her mother reassures her. "Everything is going to be fine. I have no problems with Celine and I know how much this means to you. Try to relax and just be yourself. It will be easier if you are being you instead of awkward nervous Clary who says all the wrong things. You know...the one that stumbles over her words and says inappropriate things without thinking about it..."

"I am fully aware of how awkward my mouth can make things." Clary says dryly as she levels her eyes at her. "It's not my best quality but I think I have grown out of that."

"I really hope so." Jocelyn says with a smile. "Do you remember that time when you were so nervous you said, 'Look at that beautiful painting; all those bright colors. Isn't it beautiful?' to that Yakuza leader that had recently gone blind from acid being thrown at ..."

"Yes! I get it." Clary says in a rush. She doesn't like to be reminded of that particular moment. It definitely wasn't her best. Her father had to calm down the man and explain that his daughter had a tendency to shove her foot down her throat when she was nervous. It almost ruined the deal Valentine was trying to broker with them. "Like I said, I think I have out grown that."

"Okay, sweetie." Jocelyn tells her as she tucks a piece of hair behind her daughter's ear. "Let's go inside. I am sure Celine is wondering where we are."

"We're only a couple of minutes late and the teacher always runs behind." Clary says but turns and enters the cooking class, leaving her mother's very anxious guards at the door next to Celine's. A quick scan of the room and Clary sees Jace's mother at their cooking station, the second island from the front. Celine seems to sense Clary's eyes on her and she turns around to smile and wave at her. Clary easily smiles back and walks over to her. She isn't surprised when Celine wraps her in a big hug even though some part of her was wondering if she would change her behavior because her mother was here. It was nice to find out that she didn't change though. Clary always likes to know what to expect. It soothes her to think that she has some sort of idea of what is to come. When she pulls back and sees Celine smiling widely at her, she gets a wave of confidence. "Celine, this is my mom, Jocelyn."

She steps aside and her mom gives Celine a closed mouth but warm smile as she steps forward and the two women shake hands. "It's nice to finally meet you after all of these years." Jocelyn says to her.

"Same here." Celine replies. "I never thought we would meet but I am glad that we are. And it's all because of Clary."

Clary's cheeks flame as she looks between the two women nervously and swallows past the lump in her throat. "Clary, sweetie. Why do you look so tense?" Celine says looking over at her.

"Oh, when she gets nervous or worried, she has a tendency to stick her foot down her throat." Jocelyn explains. "It's either that or she's worried that this whole thing will go south and then we try to kill each other."

For some insane reason, Celine smiles widely and lets out a loud laugh. Jocelyn follows suit and then the two women are reaching out and clutching onto one another's arms for support. "It's probably the latter." Celine says after taking a long breath to calm herself.

Clary looks between the two women with wide and confused eyes before letting out a tiny nervous laugh just as they stop laughing. "I'm glad the two of you find that so funny."

"Oh honey." her mother says to her. "We aren't our husbands. We just married into this huge mess. I mean no harm or ill will to Celine. Especially when you have said such wonderful things about her."

"Well," Clary says as she looks to Celine, "..she's been very welcoming and sweet from the beginning."

"That's because I saw such a wonderful change in my son when he met you." Celine says in answer. "He stopped being a boy and became a man. To see him with you and how much he adores and loves you, it makes my heart almost burst with happiness. It's hard not to love the person who makes their child so happy."

"I feel the same way about Jace." Jocelyn adds in and Celine looks to her. "I was a little weary at first but once I let all of my preconceived notions go, it was easy to see how charming and wonderful he is and how much Clary loves him and how much Jace loves her. It's hard _not_ to see it, even at first glance."

"I agree." Celine says and the two mothers turn their bodies to face each other. "I saw a change in Jace even before I met Clary. He was so happy and giddy; always smiling and giving random hugs to me for no reason. He's not as arrogant and cocky as he was before and _much_ less self absorbed and annoying than he was before."

The women all share a laugh and Clary relaxes a little. This seems to be going much better than she thought it was going to go which is amazing. Jocelyn opens her mouth to say something but the cooking teacher arrives and calls the class to order. "Today we are learning how to make a chocolate souffle with raspberry sauce." the teachers says with a gentle smile.

Jocelyn and Clary slide their jackets off and tie aprons around themselves like Celine. "I've always wanted to learn how to make a souffle." Jocelyn whispers to Celine and they smile at one another. "That's why I practically invited myself tonight when Clary told me that that is what today's class would be about."

"Me too." Celine whispers back and the women all straighten up and start listening as the lesson starts.

By the time the class is done, Clary is smiling from ear to ear. Jocelyn and Celine seem to have bonded over raising children in the life that they led and how they strived to make sure that they were as normal as possible. They also discovered that they had more similarities than they had differences which Clary already knew. Both women are laughing and taking pictures of their sad looking souffles. Celine's looks fairly normal but Jocelyn's is sad and deflated and burned on the sides. Clary's is...nevermind. No one cares about Clary's and the way it caught on fire.

"This is just so sad." Clary says as she looks forlornly down at her sad excuse for a souffle. "I was hoping I could take it home for Jace."

"Here." Celine says as she slides hers over to in front of Clary. "Just take mine and tell him that you made it."

"He'll never believe me." she says with a pout and Celine leans over and kisses her on her cheek. "I hate to go but I have to." Celine says as she picks up her coat and slides it on her shoulders. "Stephen is taking me on a date."

"I should go too. I still have to get ready for the ballet that Jace and I are going to." Clary says looking over at the two women.

"I'll walk you out." Jocelyn says and grabs her coat and purse. "I surprisingly had a wonderful time, Celine." she tells her.

"I did too. I suspected that we would have a lot in common though being the wives of who our husbands are." Celine says looking at the people around them, careful not to say anything incriminating in public where other people are listening. "We should do something like this again. It seems like our kids are in it for the long haul and we should probably get to know one another better."

"It does seem that way." Jocelyn says with a smile over at her daughter. "Until next time." she tells her and Clary and her turn and walk out of the class.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Clary says as she walks her mother to her car. "I'm so glad that you two seem to get along."

"I liked her." Jocelyn says a little wistfully. "And it also helps to get to know your enemy better if things were to go to shit with you and Jace."

"Mom!" Clary says exasperatedly. "Is that why you wanted to come tonight? Not because you wanted to know how to make a souffle?"

"No. Of course not." Jocelyn says in an amused tone. "But it was fun to get you riled up. You turn into a tomato when you get mad."

"Just...get in the car mom." Clary says and opens her mother's car door for her. "You aggravate me too much sometimes."

"Awww. Don't be mad, sweetie." her mother says and reaches out to place a hand on her arm. "I was just playing. I know that you and Jace are going to be together for a long time. I can see it written all over both of your faces."

"Good." Clary says sounding slightly indignant. "I'm glad we've established that...for the millionth time." Her mother smiles at her and then slides into the back of the car. "Are you still coming by?" Jocelyn asks her.

"I am. I have to ask Daddy something. I'm not sure he will go for it but it's worth a shot." she says as her mother shuts the car door and rolls down the window.

"Alright. I guess I'll see you soon." Jocelyn says and then her car takes off. Clary walks down the sidewalk a little ways, holding the box that has the souffle Celine made in it that Clary is supposed to pass of as hers. She'll tell him the truth because he would never believe that she made that anyways. She knows she isn't exactly the best cook and is sure that Jace has noticed that. Not that he would ever tell her, but she's seen the way he looks when he eats some of the things she makes. He takes it all like a champ though and that's why she wasn't upset when she found out that Jace is the one who gave Celine the idea for them to take cooking classes together. She knows it was because he couldn't stand her cooking and she really couldn't blame him. She was a horrible cook.

When she arrives at her car, Jordan opens the back door for her and she climbs in with a smile. "Thanks Jordan." she tells him as he shuts the door and hops in the driver's seat. "I'm so glad you're on duty tonight. I've missed you."

"I know." Jordan says knowingly. "Your dad's detail is so boring. Maybe if I wasn't so amazing at my job, your dad wouldn't want me around."

"Please." Clary says with a roll of her eyes. "We all know it's because you want to spend more time with Maia at night and that is perfectly fine with me. I know that I go out a lot at night with Jace and that still makes my father nervous. I know that he will eventually lighten up and just let Jace's men take care of me instead of insisting that there is someone with me at all times when I am with him."

Jordan huffs out a disbelieving breath. "You keep telling yourself that, princess. He will never not worry about you and leave you alone with him. At least not for a long time."

Clary looks up in the rear view mirror and makes eyes contact with Jordan as he drives. "You just leave my father to me. I know how to handle him better than anyone." she tells him and he smirks and shakes his head. "Whatever you say, madam." he says dramatically and with a British accent and she reaches up and smacks his arm playfully.

"Just drive." she tells him and he laughs as he makes a turn towards Jace's penthouse and thinks about how crazy good her life is right now. It's criminal to be this happy living her own little fairy tale like the ones she read about as a little girl. It's almost like it's too good to be true. Like she doesn't deserve to be this in love with Jace and get everything she ever wanted and so much more. But, here she is and she has it all. Life couldn't be better.

* * *

 _If only life was that easy and uncomplicated for Clary forever... Muhahaha!_

 _Also, sorry that this was just a filler chapter but it was a necessary one. There will be a lot happening in the next one. A LOT!_

 _Thanks a million for reading and don't forget to review and follow! Your feedback is something I look for so I can give y'all what you want. Till next time!_


	17. Chapter 17

The next day...

Clary walks into the Morgenstern mansion after the long night at the ballet. It was beautiful and she could barely sleep last night because she couldn't stop thinking about it. They had done the story of Sleeping Beauty, which is one of her favorites, and it made her want to go home and paint a picture of the beautiful lines of the ballerinas. She laid in bed for most of the night painting a picture in her mind that she would eventually paint for real.

"Dad!" Clary shouts as she takes off her coat and kicks off her boots.

"He's back here!" she hears Jonathan yell from the kitchen and she walks back there to join them. There is a smell of bacon and eggs that gets stronger with every step and her stomach begins to growl. When she rounds the corner, she sees Jonathan cooking breakfast while Izzy is sitting on the counter next to the stove. Her legs are swinging back and forth as she leans in and gives Jonathan a sweet and quick peck on the lips.

"Hey chick." Clary says as she smiles at Izzy.

"Hey skank." Izzy replies back playfully and Clary smiles at her. They have become great friends since that day at the club. Her and Jonathan have also been practically inseparable. They have had a whirlwind romance like Jace and her have and it thrills her to no end to see her brother so incredibly happy. She wonders why she ever thought that him and Kaelie ever belonged together when him and Izzy seem to fit so perfectly together. Izzy doesn't take any crap from him, which is what he needs, yet at the same time, she treats him like a king. And Jonathan absolutely worships her. Her fierceness and spunk keeps him on his toes and her gentle and loving side that only those that are close to her get to see, is what he needs to keep him human in their crazy world.

Just as Clary takes a seat at the island in the middle of the kitchen, her father looks up from the papers he was reading a few seats down and takes off his reading glasses. He looks over to Clary and says, "Your mother told me you wanted to ask me something?"

"I do." she tells him as she spins on the bar stool to face him. "I don't know if you know this or not but, Stephen's birthday is coming up in a couple of days and I was wondering if..." Clary changes pace then and starts over feeling uncharacteristically nervous. "I know that you have those rare Cuban Diplomatic Trinidad cigars that you bought at auction a couple of years ago...and I was wondering..." She lets the rest of the sentence hang in the air and her father's eyes turn a little hard while looking at her. "It's just that..." Clary continues, trying to explain, "...he has everything he's ever wanted, like you, and that makes him impossible to shop for. He's a cigar lover, like you, and I remember when you bought that huge box and thought that maybe I could take a few and give them to him for his birthday. Just like maybe...five. That's all."

Clary pulls her hands together and puts them in front of her in a begging manner while her father continues to stare her down. She hates when he does that because he betrays no emotion on his face at all. She can never tell what he is thinking when he looks at her like that. "Please, Daddy. I want to give him something that shows him that I do pay enough attention to him that I know what his hobbies and likes are. And I also..." Clary says as she starts to ramble on. Thankfully, her father cuts her off.

"Fine, Clary." he says in a hard voice. "Four is all you are going to get though."

Clary's eyes fly wide with surprise and then almost crinkle shut with the force of her responding smile. "Thanks so much, Dad!" she says as she jumps up and wraps her arms around his neck in a hug. "You're the best."

"What the hell, Dad?" Jonathan says as he turns around with a spatula in his hand. "I asked for a couple of those like six months ago and you said no."

"That's because you don't appreciate them like I do." Valentine answers and then slides his reading glasses back on his face. He pulls the papers he was reading a moment ago back up and begins to study them again.

"That's so unfair." Jonathan pouts and Izzy leans forward with an amused smile on her lips. "Awwww. My poor baby. How can you live knowing that you won't get to smoke a cigar that you really don't care for. You aren't a smoker and they are rare and expensive. Let someone who will appreciate them have them. Don't be such a sour puss."

"But..." Jonathan starts to say with a wild flick of the spatula in Clary's direction but Izzy places her hand on his arm. "You know you really don't care about them." she says to him. "The only reason you are upset is because Clary got them when she asked and you didn't. The difference is that Stephen is an avid cigar smoker and would know the value of them and appreciate it so much more than you would."

Jonathan's face softens as he looks at Izzy and then he turning back to face the stove in defeat, knowing that his girlfriend is right. "Thanks." Clary mouths to Izzy and she winks back at her.

"These numbers seem fine." Clary hears a familiar voice say and then she is spinning to see Sebastian rising from one of the couches in the adjoining living room. He looks a little sheepish as his eyes come up and meet with Clary's.

"Oh. I didn't see you there, Sebastian." Clary says nervously as he hands a stack of papers to her father. "But I guess it is the day of your morning meeting here with my father." she says and mentally face palms herself. She should have thought about what day and time it was before coming over here.

"That it is." Sebastian says as he gives her a gentle smile. "How have things been with you?" he asks her.

"Everything is great." she replies with a small smile of her own. "How are things with you?"

"Everything is good." he says and then they lapse into an awkward silence. The only sound in the room is of the sizzling of bacon that her brother is making. "I got that promotion." Sebastian says after a moment in an attempt to break the heavy silence.

"That's great!" Clary says with a big and easy smile. "I know you worked so hard for it. Congratulations! I'm so happy for you."

Sebastian's mouth quirks up on one side into a half smile as his hand comes up and rubs the back of his neck lightly. "Thanks, Clary." he says and she doesn't miss the sparkle in his eye when he says her name. She looks away from him and tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. "I see that you cut your hair." he remarks and she looks back up at him.

"Yeah." she answers and blushes slightly that he would notice something like that. "It was only a couple of inches. It just got too long. It was almost to the top of my butt."

"I remember." he says with a fond smile and then his eyes fall from hers and to the floor. The smile that was on his lips fades slowly and then she has to turn away so she doesn't see the hurt that is starting to show on his face. "Well, I guess I had better go then." she says and stands. "I'll see everyone later." She looks hurriedly to her father and asks, "The cigars are still in the walk-in humidor at the cigar shop, right?" and Valentine nods.

She then turns without saying goodbye and walks out of there as fast as she can and is sliding her boots on and shoving her hands in her coat as she opens the front door. Before she can shut the door, she yells that she'll pick the cigars up around lunch and then is practically running down the steps to get away.

She fucking hates the look Sebastian got back in there. It reminds her of how badly she broke his heart. He was proposing when she was trying to break up with him. And then, she immediately starts dating someone, like literally minutes later, who turns out to be one of his enemies and it killed him. A part of her knows that she did him wrong but the other part tells her that she only did what she felt was right. What her heart felt like she was supposed to do. But that still doesn't mean that she didn't deeply care for him and love him. She did love him a lot but it just didn't feel like enough for her. She always felt like there was something missing and wondered for a long time if there was something wrong with her for feeling that way. Looking back now, she just knows that it was because she wasn't with Jace who she is meant to be with.

As she hops in the back of her SUV and her body guard takes the driver's seat, she tries to shake off the feeling of regret and remorse as she pushes away the look on Sebastian's face from her mind. "Let's get to work." she tells him and he takes off towards their first collection of the day.

By the time lunch rolls around, Clary is exceptionally tired. The lack of sleep from the night before is catching up to her. And the fact that she hasn't eaten all day isn't helping. Her car pulls up outside her father's cigar shop and she perks up a little. Stephen is surely going to like this gift. She will have to get a small humidor to put them in as well so she can wrap them.

Stepping inside the shop, Clary is surprised to see Sebastian standing behind one of the counters. He seems to be talking business with the manager and going over some numbers. Clary knows that Sebastian is her father's best money launderer and accountant and that she would still see him after their breakup, but she is beyond shocked to see him twice in one day when she's only seen him one other time since their breakup. She stops in the doorway and debates turning around and making a run for it so she doesn't have to suffer through another awkward exchange like this morning but before she can decide what to do, Sebastian looks up and makes eye contact with her, erasing any plan of escaping unnoticed and running away like a child.

He smiles widely at her and she raises her hand and gives him a gentle wave back as she steps further into the store. Thankfully, he looks like he is in the middle of something important with the manager, asking him questions and she thinks that she will be able to get in and out without having another stumbling conversation.

She starts to make her way to the back room of the cigar shop and passes right by Sebastian while looking at the floor in front of her as she walks. When she pushes the door open to the large humidor room where her father keeps his own private collection and his most expensive cigars, she smell of tobacco and spices fill her nose. It reminds her of when she was a little girl and she would sit in her father's lap while he smoked and did paperwork in his office. She would color him pictures while he worked around her and would cradle her in his arms while he was on the phone.

Clary takes another deep breath and then starts to look for the box she came for, reaching up on her toes in an effort to reach the right shelf. As she is skimming her fingers along the shelf where they are supposed to be, she hears someone open the door behind her. Already knowing who it will be, she lowers herself from her toes and turns to face him.

Sebastian is standing in the doorway looking very handsome. He is wearing a dark blue shirt with a silver tie and the color combination goes wonderfully with his dark hair and pale skin. He gives her a crooked smile and then leans against the door frame. "Well that was really awkward this morning." Sebastian says and Clary smiles at him and laughs lightly. "Yes it was." she replies and looks down at her feet.

"I don't want it to be that way between us though." he says and she looks back up to him. His eyes are warm and sincere and she nods in agreement. "Me either." she says. "I know that we will run into each other plenty more times in the future."

"Yes we will." he says and pushes off of the frame where he was leaning. "That's why I came here when I knew you would be here." he says and takes a small step towards her. He levels his eyes with her and soon she finds she can't look away from the intense look in his eyes. "I wanted us to be alone and without other people looking at us and listening to us the next time we talk. If it's just you and me, we can get all of the awkward stuff out of the way without an audience."

Clary smiles warmly at him and says, "I think I'd like that."

"I knew you would." he says and smiles back at her.

"So..." she says as she folds her hands in front of her, "..are you seeing anyone?"

He shakes his head gently side to side before he says, "No. Not yet. How are things going with you and Herondale? I'm assuming they're going well because you are here getting a gift for Stephen Herondale's birthday."

"Things are going good between us." she says. She wanted to say 'great' or 'phenomenal' but she is worried that it would hurt him to hear that. "He treats me well."

"He'd better." Sebastian says lowering his voice in mock threat. "He'd have to answer to me and the Morgenstern men if he didn't." He smiles gently at her and she smiles back.

"I know he would." she says and then gets to the hard part of the conversation, no matter how uncomfortable it is for her. "Look, I just wanted to say, now that things have calmed down, that I am really sorry about the way things ended between us. I should have let you know sooner that I was having second thoughts about us and then what happened after we broke up... I moved on _really_ quickly and I don't want you to think that it's because I didn't take us seriously or that I didn't care for you or that the breakup wasn't hard on me. It was hard and it broke my heart but Jace was there to ease the hurt and help me heal."

Her green eyes are alight with hope that he will accept her apology and see how sincere she is. She steps forward closer to him and reaches out and grabs one of his hands and encloses it in both of hers. "I did...I do love you, Sebastian. I just think that somewhere along the way, the romantic love I felt for you turned into the friendship kind of love and I didn't realize it that it happened until things got more serious between us. You are an insanely incredible man and you deserve someone amazing. And when you do find someone, tell her that if she breaks your heart, she will have to answer to me."

He chuckles as he looks away from her eyes and down at their joined hands. "That'll guarantee that I will never get another girlfriend ever again. A threat from a Morgenstern would scare even the bravest of people away."

She smiles as she gently laughs a breathy laugh and he looks back up at her. His dark eyes are swarming with emotion as he says, "I promise everything is fine between us. I forgave you a long time ago for what I thought was you wronging me. But really, all you did was stay true to yourself and your feelings. Yeah it sucks that those feelings weren't that you wanted to be with me and marry me but I can't fault you for that. All I can do is be happy for you. Be happy that you are happy because that is all I ever wanted...even if it wasn't with me. So in reality, you have nothing to apologize for."

"Sebastian..." she says gently and then she reaches up and wraps her arms around his neck. She pulls him to her for a hug and after a moment of surprise and hesitation on his part, his arms wrap around Clary. She squeezes him tightly and he lowers his face and buries it in her hair for a moment as his arms tighten around her small waist.

After a long moment of hugging him, Clary lowers herself back down from the tips of her toes and wipes away a runaway tear. "I don't deserve for you to be so wonderful and understanding." she tells him as she looks down at her feet.

Sebastian's hand comes up and his fingers pull her face up to him by her chin as he says with fervor, "Yes. You do."

"Don't you want to yell and scream at me?" she asks genuinely curious and half hoping that he would. She still feels like utter shit when she thinks about how she handled everything and is always thinking about ways she should have handled it. "Tell me what a horrible person I am?"

He surprises her by letting out a tiny little laugh before saying, "I did at one point but I moved past it a long time ago with some Jack Daniels and sad country music."

Her brows shoot up in surprise before she laughs disbelievingly. "You listened to country music?" she asks with another bigger laugh threatening to spill over.

He raises his hands up, palms out to her in defense. "Hey. Desperate times call for desperate measures." he says seriously and her laugh falls out of her mouth. After a moment of Sebastian watching her laugh at him, she straightens out and looks sadly at him. "You poor thing. How awful was it? The music, I mean."

He shrugs his shoulders and says, "I actually kind of liked it. Me and Willie Nelson are best friends now on my playlist."

"Wow." Clary says exaggerating the o sound before she and him share another laugh. It seems like all of the awkwardness from this morning has been wiped away and she feels a million times better because of it. Now she won't have to check what day it is and what Sebastian's schedule is before she wants to go home to the mansion in order to avoid him. She was sure that he still hated her and wanted to yell obscenities at her for breaking his heart. Now that all of that is cleared up, she feels like a weight has been lifted off of her shoulders that she didn't know was there.

"Now that _that_ is done," he says easily with a comfortable smile, "...how about you let me get those cigars for you. I saw you struggling to reach the shelf they are on."

"Yep." she says popping the p slightly. "You know me, I'm a dwarf and I can never reach anything. In fact, that is why I have only dated tall men. I am only with them so they can get things down from the top shelves for me everywhere I go."

"I knew it." he says narrowing his eyes at her. "You only used me for my incredibly sexy and tall and muscular body."

"You caught me." she says holding her hands up in surrender. "I guess the jig is up." They both share a smile and a small laugh before she turns around and looks up to the shelf. "The only thing is, I can't find them." she says as her eyes scan the dozens of boxes.

He laughs as he steps forward and finds the box right away with no effort and pulls it down for her. "He moved them up a shelf. That's why you didn't see them. I'll go get a small humidor for you to put them in." he says and hands her the box. She sets it down on the small t.v. tray sized table in the room as Sebastian steps out and goes to get a box. She selects four cigars and by the time Sebastian comes back, she is struggling to put the box back on the shelf.

Sebastian walks up behind her and takes the box from her hands and easily slides it back in place. When she turns around, his chest is right in her face. Thankfully, he quickly steps back to give her space and looks apologetically at her as he holds out the small humidor for her. "Thanks Sebastian." she says as she slides the cigars in.

"Anytime." he tells her and gives her a closed mouth smile as he turns to give her a way out of the small room.

As she passes by him, she reaches up as he leans down slightly and she places a small kiss on his cheek before stepping to the door. "I guess I'll see you around." she tells him as she turns to face him one last time.

"And I'll see you. Stay safe." he replies and gives her another closed mouth smile.

"I will." she says before she returns his smile and walks out of the shop with Stephen's birthday present tucked under her arm.

* * *

"What time was it again?" Jace asks his mother over the phone.

"Everyone will be here at seven." she replies. "We'll have a big dinner and then just enjoy each other's company and have cake. We just talked about it like two seconds ago."

"Tomorrow at seven." he says and makes a mental note of the time. "That shouldn't interfere with anything important that I have lined up."

"Even if it did, you would cancel it because it's your father's fifty-fifth birthday and you are going to celebrate it with your family." Celine tells him with authority laced into her voice.

"Yes ma'am." he responds with a small smile. No matter how old he is, he will always listen to and respect his mother. "But as for now, I have to go." Jace says as he sees Alec walking up to the SUV where he is.

"Alright. I love you." she says softly to him.

"Love you too, mom." he replies and then hangs up the phone just as he opens the back door to the vehicle and steps out.

Alec looks at him with concern in his eyes and Jace just smiles easily at him. "What's the emergency?" Alec asks looking at his friend.

"I think I found it." Jace answers and watches as Alec's face turns confused.

"Found what? You know I hate when you beat around the bush all the time and speak so cryptically." Alec says with a bit of annoyance laced in his tone.

"Turn around and look where we are." Jace says and looks over Alec's head. His dark haired friend spins on his heels and looks up at the letters hanging above the door to a very fancy looking building. "Tiffany's?!" he says in surprise. "Why are..." Alec trails off as he realizes why he is there. He turns around back to Jace and says, "I thought we were doing this in a few days."

"We were." Jace says as he claps his friend on his back and starts to walk towards the door. "But I was around the corner at the Kirkland's place doing some business and thought why not stop by here. It was just around the corner."

"But you said it was an emergency, Jace." Alec says with exasperation as he follows his friend into the store. "I was in the middle of a meeting."

"...with my father." Jace says leveling his eyes at him. "I promise he won't care. And besides, your dad was there too. He can handle anything Dad throws his way."

"How do you know so damn much?" Alec asks in surprise.

"Because I was on the phone with my mom for like twenty minutes and she told me you were at their place with your dad." he explains and makes a right to head over to the engagement rings after stepping through the door.

"For fuck's sake, Jace. I thought something was really wrong. I guess I should have known better knowing you." he says in a chastising tone and Jace throws his arm over his friend's shoulders. "Relax. This _is_ an emergency. I can't buy a ring without my best friend's opinion and I think I found the one. I didn't want to leave and then come back two days later to find it gone. It's one of a kind."

"I don't think you wanting me to look at an engagement ring constitutes an emergency." Alec says tiredly and lets out a long breath. "But I'm here so where is the damned thing?"

Jace smiles hugely and shakes Alec's shoulders as he says, "There's my best friend. I thought you had disappeared again. I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to start being the Negative Nancy of the two of us."

Alec cracks a tiny smile and shoves Jace's arm off his shoulders as he says, "Well someone has to be the downer of the two of us. If not, then you would be in jail. I always have to be the sensible one while you..."

"...Get to be the fun one?" Jace finishes Alec's sentence and smiles expectantly at him.

"No." Alec says sounding slightly offended but still smiling. "I can be fun. I can let loose if I want to."

"I know you can, Alec." Jace reassures him as he pulls him up to a counter. "I wouldn't be friends with you if you couldn't."

"Ahhh. Mr. Herondale. I see you have your best friend with you?" a polite lady asks from behind the counter as she walks up to help them.

"I do, Sarah." Jace replies looking over at her. "Can you pull out the ring for me? I'd just like to get his opinion before I pull the trigger and buy it."

"Certainly." the woman says with a smile and then leans over and opens the case below them. She pulls out a large oval shaped diamond ring that is encircled in a smaller row of diamonds all the way around the center oval shaped one. The band is made up of small diamonds and it sparkles with every movement.

Jace is smiling from ear to ear as he looks down at the ring. He reaches out and pulls it out of the small pillows holding it upright and fingers it between his thumb and forefinger as he says, "I immediately thought of Clary when I saw it." There is softness in his voice and Alec shifts his weight as he leans on the counter. "It's vintage looking, but not too vintage. I didn't want to get her anything too busy and with a lot going on. She is small and dainty and something huge with diamonds falling off of it everywhere would look...out of place on her small hand. This one is simple, but not too simple. I can picture it on her hand and...I just...I think this is the one."

Alec takes a deep breath and reaches out and takes the ring from his friend's hand. He looks down at it studiously and turns it over in his fingers a few times before rather quickly handing it back. "You know this isn't exactly my thing or something I specialize in. I'm not a fashion conscious guy or someone who keeps up with the trends but I think that ring is nice enough. If you think it's the one you want, get it."

"But do you think Clary will like it though?" Jace asks.

"I don't know." Alec says with a shrug of his shoulders. "You know her better than me."

"Would you like it if I gave it to you if I were asking you to marry me?" Jace asks holding the ring slightly out to show Alec.

"I don't think that ring would go well with my complexion or my large frame." Alec says with a playful smile and Jace smiles back after lightly rolling his eyes.

"Come on, Alec." Jace says looking him in the eyes. "Just give me a straight answer."

"I don't think I need to." he answers looking down at the ring. "It looks and sounds like that ring is the one you've fallen in love with for her. It doesn't matter what I say or what my opinion is." Jace narrows his eyes at him and Alec huffs out an exasperated breath before saying, "Yes. I like it and I would marry you if you asked me when you presented me with that ring if I were Clary."

"You see." Jace says with a small smile. "Was that so hard for you to say?"

Alec just rolls his eyes and returns Jace's small smile. "It was clear that your mind was made up before I got here." he says lowly as Jace hands the ring back to the sales lady and tells her to ring it up. "Maybe." Jace says as he turns back to him. "But I still wanted your opinion. It was important to me."

Alec looks at Jace when he says that and smiles. "You would be lost without me." he says and Jace smiles back before he says, "You have no idea. I would be useless without you. Other than my family, you have been the only constant in my life and you were there by my choice. That makes you special."

Alec smiles warmly at Jace and reaches out to place his hand on his shoulder. "Are you trying to tell me you love me?" he asks with a half playful and half serious tone.

"Of course I love you." Jace says quietly to him. "You've kept me sane all of these years. And now, you get to pass me off to Clary and won't have to deal with me anymore."

Alec laughs a slight and quick laugh. "Thank goodness." he says and smiles at Jace.

"So... now that you are out, do you want to grab lunch before heading back?" Jace asks his friend and Alec smiles back at him.

"Yeah. Let's get lunch." he replies as Jace pulls out his card and hands it to the sales lady across the counter. Just as he is tucking his card back into his wallet after paying, his phone rings. He pulls it out and sees that it is Clary. "It's her." he says to the sales lady and she smiles warmly at him. "Hello." he says answering his phone.

"Hey babe." she says with a sigh. "What are you doing?"

A sly grin spreads across his lips and he looks over to Alec next to him who now has his phone out and is looking studiously at it. "What am I doing?" Jace says back with a playful smile to her and nudges Alec with his elbow. He looks up at Jace and gives him a quick smile before looking back to his phone. "Oh...I'm just running some errands." Jace answers as he looks to where the sales lady is placing the ring in a light blue box. A thrill runs through him as he thinks about proposing with the ring he just bought for her and he leans against the counter.

"My dad agreed to let me give your dad some of his favorite cigars for his birthday." Clary tells him excitedly. "I just picked them up."

"That's great." Jace replies. "I am surprised though that your father let you have his favorite cigars to give to my dad. That's a good sign, right? Maybe our fathers will be able to be in the same room in a few months and interact a little."

"God I hope so." Clary says in a sigh. "Although things are progressing nicely between us and each other's parents, I would just like for everything to be copacetic between everyone already."

"Yes. And then maybe we can all join hands and sing Kumbaya." Jace says sarcastically and he can practically see Clary's eyes narrowing even though they are on the phone.

"Oh. Ha. Ha." she says dryly. "Very funny, you sarcastic ass."

Jace lets out a roll of laughter as the sales lady hands him the light blue ring box that is wrapped with a white ribbon and mouths 'Thank you' to her. She smiles warmly at him and then he turns to Alec. "I am actually about to go have lunch with Alec." Jace says into the phone. "Do you want to come join us?"

Alec looks up questioningly from his phone then and over to Jace with slightly concerned eyes. "Not today." she says sadly into the phone and Jace's face falls. "I've got a lot to do if I want to get home at a decent time tonight. That means that I am just going to have to run through a drive thru or something if I want anything to eat."

"That sucks." Jace says as he starts to walk towards the exit. "Do you want me to pick up some dinner for tonight so you don't have to worry about cooking?"

Something about what he said makes her laugh a breathy laugh into the phone before she says, "That sounds great. Pick up some Taki's."

"Alright. I'll see you tonight then. I love you." he says lowly into the phone.

"I love you too. Bye." she says softly back and hangs up the phone. He tucks his back into his pocket and just as they step out onto the sidewalk, Alec puts away his phone and says, "Clary's dad let her give some of his cigars to your dad as a birthday gift?" with disbelief in his voice.

"Yeah." Jace answers with a surprised tone himself. "Valentine owns a cigar shop in Brooklyn and he has some of the best cigars in the world there. You know that my dad loves cigars and Clary knew that her dad had some really rare ones and thought she would ask him to allow her to take some for a birthday present for my father. I am surprised that he said yes. She said she just picked them up. "

Alec's brows raise in surprise and thought as he looks up and to the SUV ahead of them. "I'm surprised too." he says simply. "Were they from his own personal stash or something?"

"There were." he answers as he climbs into the back of the SUV. "He bought them at an auction at Christie's last year and since there were like forty of them, she took a chance and asked and I guess it worked out."

"Hmm." Alec hums thoughtfully as he climbs in next to Jace and shuts the door. "I guess things are going good between everyone then. That's great."

"It is." Jace says and smiles warmly at the thought. "Things are really working out great. Better than I ever hoped they would after I found out who she was."

Alec looks over to Jace and says, "I'm surprised that they are going so good as well. I never thought that the two men would be able to put away their pride and prejudice and try to get along. I thought for sure that everything would have blow up in both of your faces by now. I'm not used to being wrong."

"Me either." he answers and quirks a smile. "I guess that we were wrong. It's the only time I've ever been glad that I was wrong." He lets out a chuckle that Alec returns and then they are taking off and heading towards their favorite Chinese place.

* * *

"Honey! I'm home!" Jace shouts as he kicks the door to his penthouse shut while he juggles the food he picked up from Taki's in his hands.

"Darling!" Clary says dramatically as she appears from his bedroom in an over sized sweater that hangs off of one of her shoulders, revealing her milky bare skin, and a pair of very short shorts. She throws her arms up in the air and runs in slow motion to him. He laughs as she nears him with his arms outstretched to embrace her. Just as he is sure she is about to fall into his arms and kiss him, she grabs the bag of food and laughs evilly as she runs away with it towards the kitchen.

"Hey!" he shouts indignantly and then is walking after her. "That wasn't very nice of you."

"I'm starving though." she says in a sad whine as he rounds the corner to the kitchen and sees her pulling out some utensils. Her bottom lip is outstretched and she has her sad puppy dog eyes shining at him. "I didn't have time to eat lunch or breakfast."

"Oh no." he says dramatically and then is wrapping his arms around her waist. "Your poor, poor thing."

"I know, right?" she says as her hands clasp behind his neck. He walks her back till she is leaning on the counter where she set the bag of food. "My stomach has been growling non-stop for two hours."

Jace sticks his bottom lip out at her as his eyes turn sad. "That sounds awful. Just plain awful." He starts to dip his head down to hers for a kiss and just when she closes her eyes, he reaches behind her and grabs the bag of food and holds it up high over his head. He steps away from her and the look of utter betrayal on her face is exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

"Hey!" she says indignantly just like he did only a minute ago.

"You see." he says in a chastising tone. "It sucks when you are expecting an amazing kiss and instead of getting it, you get shafted and the food you picked up is stolen right out from under you."

Clary narrows her eyes at him and crosses her arms across her chest stubbornly as her lips press hard against each other. "Now..." Jace says stepping closer to her, "...if you wanted to...I don't know...maybe give me a kiss, I could hand this back to you and give you your favorite meal from Taki's. But it would have to be a really good kiss to make up for how you wronged me."

She looks up to the food hanging in the air from his hand where Jace knows she can't reach and looks thoughtful for a moment. She briefly weighs her options and after a moment, her face relaxes from the grimace it was in and she looks back to his eyes. Clary pushes off of the counter and steps over to Jace, sliding her hands around his abdomen. She reaches up onto the tips of her toes and raises her face to his. His free hand reaches around her waist and he pulls her body flush with his as he lowers his head to hers. Their lips graze against each other's for a moment before she reaches up a little more and she presses her lips softly against his.

He can't help but sigh a little into the kiss as her hands move to tangle in his hair. It feels so good to have her lips on his after a long day apart. She seems to feel the same way because she deepens the kiss. Her lips press against his with fervor as she sucks in air hurriedly through her nose. Her hands fist in his hair as she presses every line of her body against every line of his.

The hand that is holding the food in the air slowly starts to fall as the desire to pick her up and take her to the bedroom starts to move to the forefront of his mind. He walks her back to the counter where he pins her against it again as her tongue dives into his mouth. He sets the food down on the counter behind her and uses that hand to grab a handful of her butt. She moans into his mouth when he squeezes her left cheek which is cupped in his hand and all other thoughts than those telling him to take her to the bedroom all fall away. She always does this to him. She makes him forget everything else in the world except for her.

Her hands scrape roughly down the front of his chest and to his washboard abs. Just as he leans down and places his other hand on her butt to lift her up and carry her away, she pushes him away just as she steps back. He has to blink and shake his head a little to regain his senses and that is when he notices she is holding the bag of food. "What the..." he starts to say and a sly and mischievous grin spreads across her lips that have darkened to a delicious deep pink from their fervent kissing. "Thanks for getting dinner, babe." she says sexily and then walks away with a little too much swing in her hips.

He should be upset and peeved at her but the vision of her hips swaying back and forth and making her butt move in the same way as when they are..."You're so mean, you evil temptress, you." he calls out as he starts to follow after her.

"I only gave you what you wanted." she says languidly as she looks over her shoulder at him as she continues to walk to the living room. "You wanted a kiss in exchange for the food, remember?"

"Not really." he said with a pout. "I barely remember anything anymore. Not after what you did and what you left me with." He gestures downward and her eyes follow his motion. Her lips smirk a little before she says, "You poor thing." and sets the food down on the coffee table in front of the television. "It must suck to have something dangled in front of you that you want so badly and then have it suddenly taken away after you've thought about it all day. Kind of how I've thought about this food all day and how you denied me it and then dangled it above my head..." She trails off and he narrows his eyes at her before he says, "Touche."

He plops down next to her on the couch as she pulls out the two containers of food and sets one in front of him. "I turned on a movie for us to watch." she says gesturing to the television in front of them. It was paused on the opening credits. "I made you suffer through The Notebook so I thought it would be only fair for me to suffer through Rocky."

His eyes widen and a smile lights up his face. "Yes!" he says excitedly. "I knew you loved me."

"I sure as hell do since I am about to sit through this horror show." she says dramatically and looks over at the television. "I've avoided this movie vehemently all my life from the many attempts that my brother, father, and past boyfriends tried to get me to watch it. And now I am willingly sitting down and am going to suffer through it."

"Geez." Jace says with an amused smile. "Don't sound too excited."

"I'll give it a chance." she says as she looks back to him. "I know how much you like all of the Rocky movies."

"And that's why I love you." he says as he leans forward and pecks her on the lips. She smiles up at him and looks at him the way he loves so much. The look that lets him know without a doubt that she is in love with him. That's when he realizes what is now burning a hole in the front pocket of his pants. _The ring_.

"Go ahead and play the movie." he says to her as he stands up quickly. "I'm going to go get changed out of these clothes and into something more comfortable." He gestures to the black slacks and burnt red button up shirt he is wearing and she nods her head and plays the movie.

"Shit. That was close." he mumbles to himself as he walks into his closet and over to the safe that is tucked into the wall. He knew that she could have slid her hands down at any moment and felt the box in his pocket and then she surely would have asked him what it was.

He punches in the code that only he knows into the key pad and opens the heavy door. He shoves aside the few hundred thousand dollars he has there and his passport to one side and sets the light blue Tiffany's box on the cleared out space. He smiles to himself and grabs it instead of shutting the safe. He unties the ribbon around the box and opens it and pulls out the ring box inside. His fingers lift up the top and he looks at the ring he just bought for Clary. Jace can't help the insane grin that pulls up his lips as his fingers slide over the small band and diamonds that make up the ring. He can't wait to propose to her. He still doesn't know how or exactly when he is going to do it but he knows he won't be able to wait a long time before practically shoving the ring at her and begging her to wear it to show the world she is his and his alone. That thought alone is almost enough to make him run in there and ask her right this second but he holds back. He wants the moment to be everything she ever dreamed it to be so he slowly closes the box and puts it back in the safe.

"Just a little bit longer." he tells himself as he shuts the door and turns the lock to secure it.

* * *

 _If you wanted to see the ring that I had in mind while describing Clary's engagement ring, just google in images 'oval halo diamond engagement ring in platinum' and it should pop up._

 _I know I said that there was going to be a lot happening in this chapter but I had to trim it down. It was eight thousand words before I knew it and most of the stuff that was going to be in this one will be in the next one. That being said, shit is about to go down! I promise!_

 _As always, thanks a billion for reading and don't forget to tell me what you think and follow!_


	18. Chapter 18

Clary surprisingly was having a wonderful time at Stephen's party. Alec and Max are there along with his parents which she got to meet. Everyone was smiling and chatting and the only down side seemed to be Stephen's second, Michael Wayland. She had met him a couple of times before briefly where she got the impression that he didn't exactly like her that much and after tonight, she feels she was right.

Every time Jace and her would be put into a group of people where he was, he would politely excuse himself. When he thought she wasn't looking, he would stare at her making her feel very uncomfortable. At one point, when her and Jace had walked into the kitchen and were alone, she had asked him why Michael seemed to not like her. He responded saying that he was just still very weary of the whole situation and not to pay him any attention. She only had time to nod her head in understanding before Jace pinned her against the fridge and pressed his urgent lips against hers.

Jace had been uncharacteristically happy and loving today, not that she was complaining, but she wondered what had changed on make him act extra sweet. When he finally pulled back from her lips, they were both breathing heavily. Jace's eyes were hooded like hers and she wrapped her arms around his neck with her elbows resting on his broad shoulders. "What was that for?" she asked him. "You've been extra handsy and loving today. Why is that?"

"Can't a guy show the woman he loves how much he loves her?" he asks with his most sexy smile. She feels her knees wobble a little under his gaze as his fingers trail lightly down her spine and she arches into him. "I can't stop thinking about something and it makes me want to show you how I feel and show you all of the things I want to do to you." His voice drops low and husky and Clary has to bite her lip hard to stop herself from jumping him right here in his parent's kitchen. The pain in her mouth provides a welcome distraction from the want that is spreading through her body like a wild fire.

"You have got to stop this." she tells him reluctantly as he dips his head and starts to kiss down her neck. Against her better judgement and will, she leans her head back to give him easier access to the sensitive skin of her neck while telling him, "We can't do this in your parent's house with people everywhere."

"You're right." he says with a deep and rough voice right beside her ear. "Let's go into the walk-in pantry right to your left."

Her eyes fly open wide as she turns her head to look in his eyes with surprise. She is about to tell him no way until she sees the heavy look of want swimming in his beautiful golden eyes and it melts her resolve. He sees this and smiles his sexy-as-hell crooked smile as he steps to the side and starts to push the door to the pantry open. Just as it is pushed all of the way open and Clary is turning to go in, his mother walks into the kitchen with a bright smile and says, "There you two are!"

Jace freezes in place as he turns away from her and reaches down to adjust his pants to try and hide the evidence from what they were doing and what they were about to do. Celine looks completely unaware of what was going on as she walks over to the fridge right next to where Clary is standing and opens the wide over-sized doors. "Clary? Can you help me grab the cake here?" she asks. Clary clears her throat and swallows down the lump of desire that was coursing through her only a moment ago and steps around the fridge doors. "Sure. What do you want me to do?"

"Grab that end of the cake." she says as she nods her head and Clary looks to the end of the large cake that is closest to her. "Wow. That's huge." she remarks as she reaches for it.

"That's funny." Jace says reemerging from the corner he tucked himself into in the kitchen to wait for his problem to go away. There is a playful smile on his lips as he looks at Clary and says, "You said those exact words the first time you..."

Celine immediately cuts his words off with a loud "Uhh uhh, Jonathan Herondale." she says in a chastising tone. "I _do not_ want to hear about what happens in your bedroom...ever."

He lets out a loud roll of laughter as Clary blushes and Celine and her set the cake down on the island in the middle of the large kitchen. "Just grab the candles for me in the pantry." she tells her son as he is still laughing and he turns and walks into the small room and comes out with a few packs of tall sparkling candles. He tosses them onto the counter and walks over to stand behind Clary and wraps his arms around her waist and rests his chin on her right shoulder.

"She's so beautiful, isn't she mom?" he says with a smile clear on his mouth. Clary turns her head to him and he kisses her sweetly. When Clary looks back to Celine with a slight blush on her face, she sees the blonde woman smiling with undeniable warmth and happiness on her face as she watches them. "Yes. She is _very_ beautiful." Celine says and Clary looks down at the pack of candles she is trying to open.

She can't help the smile that is on her lips in that moment. She has never been so blissfully happy and she never thought that any person could ever be this unbelievably happy. If she had known that she could feel this way, she would have started searching years ago for this bliss. A part of her feels like she wasn't alive until the night she met Jace and he sung Careless Whisper to her in the middle of Bat's bar. She got everything she ever wanted and everything she never thought to ask for.

The relationship between the Morgenstern and Herondale families is at the best place it's ever been. Her brother met the love of his life, which he never would have done if she hadn't been dating Jace. She was so completely and utterly and insanely in love with Jace that sometimes it feels like her heart will burst with the force of it. Like it isn't possible for a person to be able to love someone as much as she loves him.

He lets go of her waist and steps to the side of her and she turns to face him. She is sure her eyes are swimming with the love she is bursting at the seems for him with because his eyes start to shine back down at her the same way. "My God, I love you so unbelievably much." she says lowly to him as she reaches up and slides one of her hands on his face. He turns his face into her hand and kisses it softly before he says, "I love you more."

"Not possible." she says softly back to him and reaches up for a kiss. Their lips brush against each other in a soft but loving kiss that gives her goosebumps. "Okay you two love birds." Celine says lovingly and they break apart slowly. Clary turns to look at Celine who is watching them with a glowing smile as she opens a package of candles. "Help me light these fifty-five candles for your father."

When that is done, Clary helps Celine hoist up the large cake and they start to head into the main living area. Celine starts singing 'Happy Birthday' on the way there and when Stephen sees the two women carrying his cake to him with Jace next to Clary, he smiles widely. 'He looks really, really happy' Clary says to herself as they reach him. "Make a wish." Celine tells him and he takes a deep breath and impressively blows out all of the candles with one huff.

Everyone claps loudly and cheers as they set the cake down on the table in the dinning room that is adjoined to the living room. Alec walks up to Clary as someone else comes up and starts to cut the cake and she turns and smiles at him. "Hey Alec."

"Hey. Did you see Scarface Jr. over there tonight?" he says and looks pointedly over to a guy with dark brown slicked back hair. He has on a thick gold necklace and the top three buttons of his shirt are unbuttoned to show an impressive amount of chest hair. He also apparently bathed in some God awful cologne that you could smell ten feet away. He had winked at Clary a couple of times and she had to turn her head away so he wouldn't see her laughing at him. But looking at him now across the room, she can't hold back the giggle that finds it's way out of her mouth.

"He's kind of hard to miss." Clary says with an amused smile as she looks up to Alec who seems to be repressing his own laughter.

"He is Stephen's top body guard's son and he thinks he is God's gift to women." he says lowly to her as they watch him talking with two other older men. "He always brags to Jace and I whenever we are forced to be in the same room how women fall at his feet since he is a 'mafia man'."

Clary once again can't help the laugh that bubbles up and spills out of her. "Wow. That's so sad." she says as she looks back up at Alec.

"But he's a liar. You see, the thing is, he's incredibly gay." Alec whispers and her eyes widen with surprise. "Yeah." he says when she raises her brows in question. "I saw him at this gay club Magnus dragged me to a month ago. His tongue was practically choking some guy in one of the dark corners. When I approached him and tapped on his shoulder and he turned around and saw me, I thought he was going to throw up."

"Why doesn't he just come out of the closet?" she asks just as Jace walks back over to them with Clary's present for his father in his hand and says, "Because the world couldn't handle a bisexual Jace Herondale. No one would be safe from my charms."

Both Clary and Alec roll their eyes heavily and huff out an amused yet exasperated breath as they turn to look at him. "We weren't talking about you, you self centered ass." Alec says with a smile.

"Were you talking about Scarface Jr.?" Jace asks and both Clary and Alec laugh.

"Yeah." she responds. "How did you know?"

"Because Alec wouldn't stop talking about how much he wanted to go on a date with him after he saw him in the club that one night. I can barely get him to talk about anything else." Jace says and she laughs. Alec, on the other hand, isn't that amused. He narrows his eyes at Jace who is smiling playfully at him. "Just go over there and ask him out. We won't tell Magnus, will we babe?"

"Uh uh. Nope." Clary says as she presses her lips together hard to get her laughter to stop.

"You two aren't nearly as funny as you think you are." Alec says and Jace throws an arm over his friend's shoulders. "Yes we are." he says and Alec looks at Jace and smiles affably at him.

"I still don't know why I put up with you." Alec says to him and Jace replies with, "It's because you love me and can't get enough of me. No one can ever get enough of me. It's a curse, really."

Clary rolls her eyes and grabs the small box of cigars from Jace's hand. "Come on, Casanova. Go with me to give your dad my gift."

Jace takes his arm from around Alec's shoulders and puts it around Clary's waist. When Clary looks up to Alec, he suddenly looks like he doesn't feel good. "Are you okay?" she asks him.

"Yeah." he says softly. "I think I just ate something bad and it's not sitting well. It's been coming and going all day."

"That sucks." she says and pats him on the arm. "I have some stomach medicine in my purse if you'd like some."

"Nah. I'll be fine." he says with a tight smile. "It's nowhere near as bad as it was an hour ago."

"Okay. Tell me if you change your mind." she says as her and Jace start to make their way over to his father. He's talking with Michael Wayland who is smiling and laughing when they reach them. As soon as Michael sees Jace and her, his face turns a little sour while Stephen smiles up at them. Clary once again notices how incredibly happy he looks and how infectious his smile is. She smiles at him as she holds out the humidor with a large ribbon tied around it. "Happy birthday." she tells him.

He looks down and his eyebrows raise as he takes the gift and starts to untie the ribbon. He opens the humidor and brings the box up to his nose and inhales deeply. "They are 1952 Cuban Diplomatic Trinidad cigars. I could only get my hand on four of them though." Clary says sounding a little self conscious.

When Stephen hears what she says, his eyes fly wide in surprise and he looks up to her with a wildly growing smile. "Seriously?" he asks. "These are some of the rarest and supposedly best cigars in the world. I'm surprised you could find one!"

"So you like them?" she asks sheepishly. The returning blinding smile that is accompanied by a surprise hug from him lets her know that she hit a home run with her gift. "Thank you so much, sweetheart." he says to her when he lets her go. She is smiling warmly at him and his sudden outburst of unexpected affection. "You're very welcome."

"She probably stole them from her daddy." Michael Wayland says lowly with acid lacing his tone and Clary cuts her eyes over at him. She certainly doesn't like to be disrespected like that; especially in front of Stephen who she wants to show that she is a strong and capable woman. She feels Jace tense at her side but before he can say anything to him, she makes eye contact with Michael and narrows her eyes at him.

"They came from my father's own personal collection." she says with a muted coldness to her voice. "I asked him if I could take some of them and give them to Stephen for his birthday and he agreed. So I guess you could say that it was sort of a present from the both of us."

Stephen sees the tension between the two of them and breaks into the exchange between them. "Well tell your father I appreciate his gesture and thank you for asking him for me. That was incredibly thoughtful of you. I absolutely love my gift."

Clary takes a deep breath and relaxes as she looks back to Stephen and smiles kindly at him. "I'm glad you like them." she says and leans forward and surprises him with a kiss on the cheek. He graciously accepts it and then looks up to his son. "Could you set these in my office. I don't want them to get misplaced."

"Sure thing, dad." Jace answers and grabs Clary's hand as he takes the cigars from his father. The two of them turn away and start to head towards Stephen's office. "Man, I really don't like that guy." Clary says lowly to where only Jace can hear.

"I don't know why he is acting like such an ass." he replies as they have to scoot in between two groups of people. "He's really not a bad guy. He's my Godfather for crying out loud. He shouldn't be so rude to you. It really pissed me off."

"I know." she says knowingly as they reach the office door. "That's why I said something before you could."

"Yeah, what I was going to say wasn't going to be too nice." Jace confesses as he punches a code into the lock box on his father's door. Clary purposefully looks away so as to not see what the code is out of respect for Jace and his family. "Hopefully he'll warm up to me like your parents have."

"He'd better." Jace mutters as the door opens and she turns to smile at him and his protectiveness over her. He steps into the office and comes back out a few seconds later without the cigars. "How much longer do you want to stay?" he asks Clary as he shuts the door behind him.

"As long as you want." she tells him as he looks to her. "I'm not in a hurry."

"Alright. We'll stay a little while longer. At least until most of the people are gone." Jace says as he takes her hand.

Three hours later and Clary is starting to regret saying that she wasn't in a hurry. She had spent most of the time talking with Celine while Jace made rounds to every group, making a point to talk with everyone. She had been with him at first but most didn't like to 'talk shop' with her around so she excused herself and found Celine. Clary knew that that is what you have to do in his situation; keeping tabs on everyone and listening to his people helps build a sense of family which is very important in the mafia. But just because she understood, didn't mean that she wasn't bored out of her mind. Her and Celine had already cleaned up the kitchen with help with of a few wives and then they had lapsed into a mind numbing conversation about their spouses and shopping and other small talk that she found repugnant. There was only so much mindless conversation she could take.

She walks up to Jace and taps him on the shoulder. He turns around and smiles fondly at her and gives her a quick peck. "Babe. I think I am going to head home." she tells him.

He looks down at his watch and then back up at her. "If you give me another ten minutes, we'll leave together."

"Okay. I'll just go grab our coats." She gives him a peck on the cheek and smiles politely at the group of men he is talking to before turning and heading to the foyer closet to retrieve their coats and her purse. When she gets there, she finds Alec on the phone and looks like he is really thinking about something. That or he isn't feeling any better than he was a while ago. Clary stops in her tracks and goes back around the corner to give him some privacy which is probably why he came over here in the first place. To get away from the crowd. Another minute passes before he comes around the corner looking a little flushed.

"Are you okay?" she asks him. He jumps a little in surprise and turns to see Clary leaning against the wall and looking at him with concern.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Everything is fine." he says dismissively. She wants to ask him again but she holds back. In this world of hers and Jace's, people have plenty of secrets that you really shouldn't pry into it if the information isn't offered up at first. Hopefully he's just a little sick and will feel better soon.

"Alright." she replies and then starts to turn to go for the foyer closet again.

She can hear Alec walk away and she assumes he went to rejoin the party. After she grabs her and Jace's coats, she pulls out her phone and texts Magnus and asks if him and Alec are okay. Maybe they had a fight and that is why he isn't here tonight. While waiting for an answer, she slides her coat on and grabs her purse and then her phone pings with the sound of an incoming text. She pulls it back out and sees that Magnus has replied, "Not exactly...but we're working on it."

She suddenly feels bad for him. Jace told her that this was his first relationship with someone and she knows that must be an adjustment for him. Clary tucks her phone back in her pocket and then heads back into the party. Jace meets her almost immediately and with a look on his face that lets her know that she won't be leaving any time soon. "Why don't you go ahead and go home." he tells her and she huffs out a breath of air in disappointment. "I'm sorry but I need to talk with my dad about something and since he is in such a good mood..."

"It's fine Jace." she tells him reassuringly. "I'll just go home and wait for you there. If I get too tired, I'll just go to bed."

"You're the best." he says and gives her one of his incredibly sexy crooked smiles.

"I know I am." she whispers back to him with a cocky smile and brings him in for a kiss. When they break apart, she heads for the door where Max hurries up and opens the door for her. "I'll drive you. I need an excuse to escape anyway." he says and looks back at his father who has been giving him less than loving looks all night. "Okay. Take me home. I've got to get out of these damn heels." she replies and steps through the door.

* * *

Pretty much everyone has gone home. Jace along with Alec, Robert, Michael, and Stephen are the only ones still hanging around on the couches in the living room. Everyone is in a good mood and smiling after the birthday party. Alec has been a little quiet for most of the night though and he makes a mental note to ask him if there is something bothering him. He's worried about him and Magnus since they talked the other day.

That being said, he figures there will be no better time to tell everyone what he is going to do. Everyone that would need to know is already here and happy so he is just going to go for it. He had planned to do this with just his father but this way, he won't have to tell everyone individually.

Jace scoots forward to the edge of the couch and turns to his father who is sitting in a plush leather chair to the left of him. Alec is sitting beside him while Robert and Michael are across from him on the other couch and laughing loudly at a crude joke his father just made. When everyone sees Jace's movement, they turn and look at him. "Dad. There is something I wanted to tell you." he says seriously but with a smile on his face.

His father leans forward and sets down his glass of bourbon on the coffee table in the middle of everyone after seeing Jace's face and hearing the tone of his voice. "Okay, son. What is it?"

"Well..." he says and looks back to Alec for a moment who looks just like everyone else; curious and waiting to find out what he is going to say. "Alec and I went to Tiffany's yesterday and I bought a ring. An engagement ring." Stephen's brows raise in pure surprise and he sits up straight and leans forward towards his son, waiting for him to continue. "I'm going to ask Clary to marry me."

Jace can see in his peripheral vision that Robert and Michael have leaned forward as well and turned to watch Stephen's reaction. He remains quiet for a moment while studying his son's face. The silence stretches on and soon he is sure that a good fifteen to twenty seconds has passed. Just as he is about to say something else, his father says, "Alright, Jonathan. If that's what you want to do."

Jace instantly begins to smile his most blinding and genuinely happy smile. "Do you think that is what is best for the family?" Michael says tensely and with obvious muted anger in his voice. "Are you willing to trust her..."

"I gave my son my answer." Stephen says, his eyes turning hard and unyielding as he looks over to his right hand man. "Do you think my answer was wrong?"

Michael shifts a little uncomfortably under Stephen's intense gaze. He swallows hard before saying, "I just think that we still don't know the Morgenstern well enough to let her into the fold. She's never rubbed me the right way. She always seems like she is up to something."

Jace's eyes narrow as Michael speaks and then he finds that he is standing up without making the decision to do so. "You don't know anything about her other than her name." he spits out. "If you had removed your head from your ass for more than two seconds, you would have seen that her and I are very much in love. She has been nothing but respectful of our business and has never made any request to know what is going on within it. She always excuses herself and steps away so I, or anyone else, can have privacy when talking about it. If she were trying to infiltrate and destroy our family, then she wouldn't do any of that. And besides, your opinion doesn't matter. The only person whose opinion does matter, just gave his blessing." His eyes are trained on Michael who is remaining quiet and trying to show respect to him. "Do you think my father was stupid for giving Clary and I his blessing?"

Michael's face is starting to turn red with anger and embarrassment as he looks up to Jace. "No. I do not believe Stephen to be a stupid man. I am only concerned for him and you and the business. It's my job to be concerned. You are like a son to me, Jace. My only concern has always been you and your father and the business that took generations and a lot of deaths to create. I want you to be happy, just as much as your father does. I just want you to be absolutely one hundred percent sure that she can be trusted."

"I trust her." Jace says sternly to him. His anger has faded considerably but he is still firmly standing his ground. "She is the love of my life. My soulmate and I trust her with my life. She nor I have any plans to incorporate her into the business anytime soon. All I want to do is marry the woman I love."

"And you will." Stephen says gaining his son's attention. He smiles warmly at Jace and nods his head for him to sit down. He takes his seat as his father's smile relaxes and becomes soft. "I honestly never thought I would see the day when you, Jonathan Herondale, womanizer, would want to ask a girl to marry you. And then you met Clary. I, as you know, was extremely hesitant at first to let her in and get to know her. But after seeing the two of you together and getting to know her and seeing how happy she makes you, I wouldn't want to deny you of the declaration of love that marriage brings. You have my full support as well as the support of everyone in this room. Congratulations, son." Stephen picks up his glass of bourbon and holds it up in the air. The rest of the men follow his lead and pick up their glasses as well. "To my son and his beautiful soon to be bride! Congratulations!"

There is a chorus of 'congratulations' from everyone and then they all toss back a swig of their drinks. "Thank you again, father. Now you have to wish me luck. I have to go ask Valentine for her hand in marriage first."

"You'll need all the luck you can get." Roberts says and Jace looks over at him and laughs a shaky laugh. "Thanks." Jace replies and then pulls his phone out of his pocket. It is going on midnight and he downs the rest of his drink before he stands. "I'd better get going. Clary is waiting up for me."

"Alright son." Stephen says standing up.

"We'd better get going as well." Robert huffs out as he and Michael stand as well. "It's late and I am sure Mayrse will want to yell at me about something before going to sleep tonight."

The men share a small laugh as they all start to walk out of the room and to the foyer. "I think I'll have one of my new cigars before heading to bed tonight." Stephen says as he claps Jace on the back. "You must tell Clary thank you again for those. Lighting one of those up is all I've been thinking about since she told me what they were."

"She'll be happy to hear that. She was really nervous about the whole gift."

"Well tell her it was one of the best presents I've ever gotten." he says with a smile. "Now if you will excuse me, gentlemen. I have to go light up an incredibly rare and expensive cigar."

"I'll see you tomorrow." Michael says as he steps out of the now opened front door. "We still have to go over the newly acquired property by the docks."

"Yes, yes. Don't remind me." Stephen replies with dread. "Now get out."

"See you later, Dad." Jace says and then turns and gives him a manly hug, clapping him on the back a few times. "Thanks again." he whispers while his mouth is next to his father's ear.

"Of course. I love you, son." he replies with feeling.

"Love you too, Dad." Jace tells him and then turns and shuts the door as they share a smile.

By the time Jace gets back to his penthouse, tiredness has set in. He shuffles to the door after stepping off the elevator and unlocks it. He pushes the door open and immediately sees Clary standing in front of the back wall of window that stretches along the length of his penthouse. No lights are on in the place and her silhouette is perfectly outlined against the lights of the skyscrapers across Central Park. She has a blanket wrapped around her with only her fire red hair and bare feet visible.

She turns when she hears him shut the door and smiles widely at him. "I'm glad you're back." she tells him. He takes his coat off and tosses it on the table by his front door and undoes the tie around his neck as he walks over to her. She lets the blanket fall from her shoulders and bunches it around her waist as she holds her hand out for him to take. He laces his fingers with hers and then wraps both of their arms around her waist while his other arm wraps around her shoulders from behind with his chest pressed firmly against her back. Clary then rests her chin on his forearm as his head dips down and his lips press gently against her cheek. "I'm glad I'm back too." he whispers in her ear.

"You know what I was just thinking about?" Clary asks him. Her voice is soft and wistful as she turns her head to look at him and says, "I was thinking about us and how crazy all of this has been. The likelihood of us meeting and not knowing who the other was. If it had been a year or two from now, we probably would have known who each other was and instantly despised each other. We would have missed out on all of this. We would have missed out on us and denied ourselves of the unbelievable happiness that we feel and the love we share." She looks back out into the city and takes a thoughtful breath. "I would have missed you even if we had never been together. I would have searched for you and never found you because of the animosity between our families. I wonder if I would have known that I could never truly be happy and fulfilled unless I found you."

Jace tightens his arms around her and presses her further into him; curving his body around hers. "Well then, lucky us." he says softly back to her. "Our timing was perfect and we will never have to know what it would have been like to not have each other. You will always have me and I will always have you. You, Clary, are my soulmate. That is something that will never change and something that I will never let go of."

"Good." she says with quiet fervor. "Because you are stuck with me. I never want to leave your side."

"Then don't." Jace whispers and she turns her face to him. He brings his lips down on hers and kisses her slowly. Their lips move perfectly in sync while his heart and hers beat hard against their chests. There is no urgency, no underlying motive of sex or anything close to that. This is just him showing her how much he loves her.

When she pulls back, the light of the moon at this particular angle reflects the green of her eyes and amplifies it, almost taking his breath away at the beauty of the color. "Play something for me." she says softly to him and right now in this moment, he wouldn't deny her of anything that she asked of.

He smiles and kisses her softly once more before turning and taking the few steps to his grand piano and taking a seat on the bench. She walks over and sits down next to him as he places his fingers on the ivory keys of the piano and he starts to play. (Liszt Consolation No. 3 in D flat major) She sighs a deep breath as she leans closer to him and rests her head on his shoulder.

Jace absolutely loves moments like these. Ones where then entire world just melts away and there is nothing but him and Clary in this one place in time. There is no one and nothing else. He's not Jonathan Herondale, son and heir of the prolific mafia boss, Stephen Herondale, and Clary isn't the daughter of the feared and respected Valentine Morgenstern. They are just Clary and Jace. Two people who are in love and sitting at the piano while he plays for her.

When the song comes to an end, she tilts her head up and he turns his face down to her and they press their lips together in a sweet kiss. "Let's go to bed." she says in the quiet of the room after she pulls away just a fraction of an inch. "Okay." he says to her and the two of them stand. He follows her for a moment before sweeping her gently off of her feet bridal style. She lets out a tiny giggle before she sees the look of pure love in his eyes and she knows what he is thinking. He is going to take her to the bedroom and take his time showing her just how much she means to him. He's going to worship every single inch of her beautiful body before he allows her to fall asleep in his arms.

But just as he kicks the door to their bedroom open, his phone ringing loudly in his pocket breaks the perfect silence of the moment. It surprises him because no one ever calls at this time of night, ever. He briefly considers answering it but when he looks back at Clary in his arms, all thoughts of that are wiped away.

He continues into the bedroom as it goes to voicemail and he sets her on the bed. His hands come up and unwrap the blanket from around Clary's waist. She leans back slowly onto his white covers as he starts to climb onto the bed with her. His phone starts to ring again and his jaw flexes in annoyance. He pulls the phone out of his pocket and doesn't bother looking at the caller i.d. before he swipes it to silent and tosses it onto his nightstand by the bed.

Clary smiles up at him as she scoots further onto the bed and he hovers over her body. He brings his lips down to the skin of her neck and places feather light kisses on every inch of it. Her hands slide up his arms and find their way into his hair as his eyes close at the sensation. She leans up and kisses his jaw line, all the way to his mouth, and when she lowers her head back to the bed, her phone that is on the other night stand hooked up to the charger begins to ring.

They both look at each other briefly with surprised concern before she says, "I think I had better see who that is."

Jace sits up, allowing Clary to flip over and crawl to her phone. She picks it up and he sees her brows furrow with confusion. "It's your mom." she tells him and turns the phone screen around for him to see. When he sees his mother's name flashing across her phone screen, he gets a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He doesn't say a word as he reaches his long arms across the bed and takes the phone from Clary's outstretched hand. He quickly swipes the answer button. "Mom?" he answers the phone.

"Jace." she says and he can instantly tell something is wrong. Her voice is raw and ragged and she hiccups her breath into the phone. "It's your dad. He's having a heart attack. We're on our way to the hospital right now."

There is suddenly a twisting sensation in his stomach and it feels like someone has punched him in the gut and he can't breathe. "We're on our way." he manages to get out before hanging up the phone.

"Jace. Tell me what's the matter. What's wrong?" Clary says with her voice full of concern. He feels her hands on either side of his face and then he finds her eyes. She's placed her face right in front of his. "Jace. Please tell me what's wrong." she pleads with him.

"It's my dad. He's having a heart attack." he says quietly.

"Oh my God. Is he okay?" she responds with worry.

"I don't know."

"Well then, let's go. I'll throw some clothes on. Grab the keys and call for your car to be brought around. We'll be out of the penthouse in less than two minutes." Clary hops up and sheds her over sized sweater and pulls on some jeans before Jace is able to move a muscle. He finally snaps out of the shocked state he was in and then he is moving like lightening.

He is still dressed from walking in the door and so he jumps up and calls downstairs to have his car pulled around front using the key that he lets the valet keep for instances like these where he needs to move quickly. He looks over to Clary then and sees that she has jeans and a blouse on and is pulling on a pair of boots. When she looks up to him, he can see the worry in her eyes for him. Once her boots are on, she grabs her phone and purse and is walking towards the front door. Jace follows her and she grabs their coats and slips hers on.

As he is opening the door, the reality of the situation hits him. His father is having a heart attack. Dread falls over him like a cold and uninviting blanket and surrounds him. He's not ready. He's not ready to take over the business. He's not ready to not have his father always there when he needs him. He's not ready.

"Did your mom say anything else?" Clary asks as they reach the elevator and it opens quickly. They step in and Jace numbly pushes the lobby button, feeling like he is just operating on auto pilot. "No. She was upset and said that Dad was having a heart attack. That's all she said."

The elevator starts to move and then he feels her grabbing hold of his hand. Her small fingers lace in between his and he squeezes them. Her touch is so comforting right now. If she wasn't here, he'd probably still be sitting in his room in shock. "Clary, he can't die. I don't want him to die." he says. His voice is smaller than he's ever heard it and he can hear the fear in his words.

"I know. He's a fighter though." Clary says with her voice unbearably soft. "He's Stephen Herondale and it's going to take a lot more than some heart attack to take him out. Let's not assume the worst until we get there and know everything. Okay?"

She reaches up and touches his face, making him have eye contact with her. There is strength in her eyes and it's almost like she is offering it up for him to take from her. He nods his head in agreement just as the elevator doors open up and then they are running.

Jace already has his car keys out and the valet opens the door for him as he approaches and he slips right in the drivers seat. He cranks up the car and then is taking off at speeds that are not appropriate for the streets of New York. The whole ride to the hospital is in silence, the only sound is the roaring of the engine and screeching of tires when someone slow pulls out in front of him.

It only takes fifteen minutes to get to the hospital and he pulls into a handicapped parking place and pulls out a fake handicapped sign to hang from the mirror so his car won't get towed. Clary is only a step ahead of him as they run into the emergency room and immediately spot his mother crying into the shoulder of Robert Lightwood. "Mom." Jace says as he approaches, his voice a little shaky.

When Celine hears his voice, she looks up and steps away from Robert and places herself in Jace's arms. She buries her head in his shoulder as he holds her and she says, "They won't tell me anything yet. I'm so scared, Jace. They couldn't get a pulse after the first five minutes of the ambulance ride. He was in his office and yelled for me. I went running from the tone of his voice and he was clutching his chest with one hand and a cigar in the other. He said he thought he was having a heart attack so I called an ambulance."

Her voice had risen steadily throughout her explanation and is verging on the brink of hysteria. "Shhh, Mom." he says softly to her. "It's okay."

"I don't think it is." she says, her voice muffled by his shoulder and then she lets out a round of loud sobs. Her arms go around his torso and squeeze him tightly while his arms squeeze her shoulders to him. Her body starts to shake in time with her sobs and he buries his face in her blonde hair. That is when he feels one of Clary's hand press softly on his back and that little touch comforts him. She is letting him know that she is there for him.

He doesn't know how much time passes before his mother finally lets go of him. It could have been five or thirty minutes but only seconds after she does, a very tired looking doctor comes walking out of the emergency room doors. "Mrs. Herondale?" he asks into the room. She immediately steps forward, followed closely by Jace, Clary, and Robert. "How is he?" she asks him as she comes within speaking distance of him.

"If you could come with me over here to this room, it would afford us some more privacy." he says and motions over to a room that says 'patient consultation'. When Jace hears that, he gets a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. If he had good news to share, he would have just said it, out there in the open. Wouldn't he have?

Celine nods and walks into the room with Jace following behind. Once he gets in the room, he turns and sees that Clary is still standing awkwardly in the middle of the emergency waiting room. "What are you doing?" he asks her while standing in the doorway. Robert passes into the room as Clary looks unsurely at him. "I don't know if your mom would want me in there. This is a family matter and I'm ..."

"Family." Jace says decidedly, cutting her off. "You're _my_ family." He holds out his hand for her and she gives him a tentative smile as she walks forward and takes it. The two of them step into the room and Jace sits down next to his mother with Clary on the other side of him. Robert is standing over by the door with his arms crossed and brows furrowed in concern and thought. Not only is he a dear family friend, he is their family's lawyer and needs to be aware of everything that is going on.

The doctor takes a seat and sucks in a deep breath and lets it out in a deep and slow huff of air. "Mrs. Herondale." he says looking up at her. "Your husband was brought in with signs of a heart attack and was unresponsive at the time." Celine reaches over and grabs her son's hand in a death grip as a tear rolls down her face. "I am terribly sorry to say that we were unable to revive him after great effort. I'm so sorry."

Time seems to stop for moment as those words sink in for Jace. He thinks he feels Clary's hand on his back and his mother's hand tightening even more around his. He looks over to his mother who looks like she is in the same state of shock that he is in. "But...it's his birthday." she says numbly and then bursts out into terrible gut wrenching sobs. He thinks he hears Robert say something close to "Dear God." but he can't be sure.

When his mother starts to grab onto his arm, he moves for the first time since sitting down. He falls to his knees in front of his mother and wraps her in his arms. She clings to him with every ounce of strength that she seems to have. He feels something cold and wet on his face and that is when he realizes that he is silently crying. A few tears have fallen unbidden down his face and have dropped onto his mother's shoulders. He thinks he hears Robert say something else and then the door opens briefly. When he looks to where he was just standing, he sees that Robert has left. His eyes then find Clary.

She is still sitting in her seat. Her hands have come up and are now covering her mouth in surprise. When she makes eye contact with him, he sees a tear roll down one of her cheeks. "I'm so, so sorry." she says lowly, choking the words out.

He wants to have her closer to him but he doesn't want to let his mother go. One arm unwraps itself from around Celine's body and he holds out that hand to Clary. She gets up and sits in the chair that was his next to his mother and grabs a hold of his hand and encloses it in both of hers. When she does, it feels like he takes some of the strength that she is surely offering him and is able to stop the slow roll of silent tears that were escaping his eyes.

His mind starts to work overtime in the next moment. The doctor tries to stand to leave but he turns his head and freezes him on the spot with one look of his face. "I need answers." he says firmly to him. The doctor nods and sits back down in his chair.

Jace lets go of Clary's hand and unwraps his mother's arms from around him. He takes one of her hands and sees Clary take the other one of hers firmly in both of hers. Celine starts to choke down the sobs that have been spilling freely from her in an effort to listen to whatever answers the doctor is about to give to whatever Jace's questions may be.

"How?" Jace says sternly to him. "How did this happen? Was it a heart attack?"

The doctor take a quick deep breath before saying, "I am not one hundred percent sure. Everything points to that it was a heart attack but for him to die so quickly, it would have to have been a massive one. One that had been building up for years."

"It just doesn't make any sense." Celine says mostly to herself. "He's so healthy. He...can't be gone. It's his birthday. I won't allow it to be true." she says as her voice grows desperate.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Herondale." the doctor says looking into her eyes. "I really did do everything in my power to try and bring him back. He was just too far gone by the time he got here."

"That's bullshit!" Celine suddenly yells. She stands up, shaking off her son's and Clary's hands. "I refuse to accept it! Go back in there and fix him or I'll have you killed!"

"Mom." Jace says gently stepping in her line of site of the now very nervous looking doctor. He reaches up and places his hands on her shoulders. "I know you're upset..."

"Upset?!" she shrieks. "My husband just died and left me here! I can't do this without him! I can't live my life without him!" Her anger has started to fade and turn into a desperate plea. "I don't _want_ to live without him. I want him back!"

"I know." Jace says pulling her in for a tight hug. "Me too."

Her arms come up weakly and hug him. Her cries are softer this time around; more defeated and tired than anything else. "Go. Get out of here." Jace says lowly. Although he isn't looking at the doctor, it's clear that's who his words are directed towards. The door opens and closes and he turns his head to find Clary once again. She is standing a few feet away with a pained look on her face as she watches them. Jace lets go of his mother, suddenly needing to have her in his arms for some reason unknown to him, and turns and wraps her tiny body in his arms tightly.

Clary's hands come up and snake around him and squeeze him tightly and then he is choking back sobs of his own. He can't fall apart here and now. He has to hold it together for his mother and for his sanity. No one can perceive him as weak by crying in public. Especially now. He has to get a grip on his emotions and clamp down on them, even though he feels safe enough to do so wrapped in Clary's embrace. "I'm so sorry. I love you." she whispers and his arms involuntarily tighten around her.

After a minute of him clinging to her, she pulls back and places her hands on either side of his face and studies him. There is hurt in her eyes for him and so he leans down and gives her a quick and soft peck on the lips. "I'm okay." he whispers to her.

Just as she reaches up and kisses him quickly once more, the door to the small room opens up and Robert is standing there. "Mr. Herondale." he says. His voice has gone to full business mode and his eyes are focused on Jace. "We need to get you home to a more controlled environment in wake of what's happened tonight. I've got a security team here for you and your mother."

"I'm not leaving." his mother says vehemently from behind him.

"I didn't think you would." Robert says looking over to her. "Your team will stay here with you. Mayrse is on her way here to be with you." He then looks over to Jace again with a very serious look. "But you, Mr. Herondale, we need to move you. It's protocol. We need to regroup and make a show of strength so no one will try anything."

Even though Jace understands what he is saying, that doesn't mean that he has to like it. When there is a transition of power in the mafia, some will see this as a time of weakness and confusion and try and attack and take over while the transition is happening. "Alright." he says taking Clary's hand and starts to walk out of the room. Robert stops him and looks apologetically at him before he looks down at Clary.

"Miss. Morgenstern, I'm going to have to ask you for your phone." Roberts says looking at her.

"Why?" Jace says sounding put off by the request.

"So she can't call her father and tell him what's going on." he says looking back to Jace. "It's just a precaution."

"It's okay, Jace." she says softly touching his arm. "I don't mind." She reaches down into her purse and hands over her phone to Robert who nods his head as a way of thanks. They step out into the emergency waiting room again and he is taken back by what he sees. There has to be fifteen men here and he suddenly wonders just how long they have been in that room. All of them are big and scary looking and ready to pounce if need be. "This way." one of his father's guards says and motions towards a fire exit right beside the room he just came out of.

He squeezes Clary's hand and then is stepping outside into the cold air of winter, knowing that his life has irrevocably changed without his will and permission tonight. There is an SUV waiting and Clary climbs in first, followed by him. As soon as the door shuts behind him, he looks over at Clary and sees her eyes shining at him with unshed tears. He raises his hand and caresses her face and says, "Everything is fine. I'm fine. We'll be fine."

She nods her head and scoots closer to him and rests her head on his chest after he wraps an arm around her back. "Everything is fine." he says again but this time, his voice is hollow and unfamiliar to himself. The car then lurches forward and they are soon speeding through the city and leading him to his new life as head of the Herondale empire.

* * *

Across town, someone hangs up the phone in the dark of a room. They bring their hands up to their face and drag them down it roughly. "It's done." they mutter quietly to themselves. "Everything had better work out how I planned."

* * *

 _Thanks for reading as always and don't forget to review and tell me what you think!_


	19. Chapter 19

Four days later...

Jace unlocks the door to the penthouse and pushes it open. Clary follows closely behind him feeling tired from the long day. The funeral service for Stephen was beautiful. The old Gothic church where it was held earlier was overflowing with flowers that were sent from what looked like hundreds of people. One of the biggest and most beautiful arrangements was sent from her mother and father. Valentine was a little peeved when he found out about Stephen's death from rumors his people passed on rather than from Clary, who had been there when he died, but he seemed to understand that she couldn't exactly call him right afterwards. He also didn't like that they took her phone from her, essentially alienating her from him and his men, but he begrudgingly understood. Jonathan had been a trooper taking over her duties while she stayed with Jace around the clock, giving him her support.

Even though he tried to hide it most of the time, Clary could tell that Stephen's death was weighing heavily on Jace. There weren't too many moments when there was no one around meaning that he had to push aside his mourning for his father until he came home to Clary. He was performing wonderfully under the new pressure and was showing absolutely no weakness as the new head of the Herondale empire. His decisions the past few days had been decisive and quick and he was reminding her of his father. The air that he would put out when others were around was hard and unyielding and she understood that that was how it had to be.

That being said, he was a different person when they were alone. He was quiet and somber. The usually happy and sarcastic Jace had disappeared for the moment and she found it hard to see the sad and mournful Jace that had replaced him. For the most part, he was just quiet and she would find him and wrap her arms around him. When she would do that, his body would instantly respond. His tense posture would relax and his body would curve around hers as he buried his face in her hair. She could feel the pain in his heart when she held him like that. There was only one time other than the night he died when she saw him cry.

Yesterday, after the wake, they had come home and Jace said he wanted to take a shower and disappeared into the bathroom. When thirty minutes passed and he still hadn't gotten out, she went to the bathroom and heard a quiet broken cry coming from inside. She slowly pushed the door open and found him sitting in the bottom of his large shower, crying a sort of gentle yet choked cry.

She didn't hesitate as she opened the shower door, still fully clothed, joined him on the floor and sat down in his lap. She wrapped her legs around his waist and hooked her ankles together while her arms locked around his neck. She buried her face in his neck and his arms came up and clutched her to him. He grabbed at her desperately, pulling at her clothes as he cried a little harder while she held him. They sat like that for a good twenty minutes before he let her go. When she pulled back and pressed her lips against his gently, it seemed to bring a little life back into him. His hands found their way into her hair and he deepened the kiss without urgency and eventually took her to the bedroom where they made sweet and beautiful love slowly for the next hour.

She suspected that he needed her to hold onto that night. That he needed her to remind him that everything was going to be okay because she was there for him and always would be. Looking at him now and seeing just how emotionally and physically drained he was, she knew that she needed to make him feel better because she hated seeing him that way. It pained her to see him try so hard to stay strong and bury his feelings at the funeral when she could tell just how hard it was for him. He really loved his father, that fact was clear after the past few days.

Jace was sliding his suit jacket off of his shoulders as they walked into the bedroom. She hurried over to the closet and pulled out a hanger for it and gave him a soft smile as she took the jacket from his hands and hung it up. "I could have done that." he says with a small sad smile.

"I know. But I wanted to do it for you." she tells him with a soft smile of her own. "Can you get the zipper on the back of my dress?" she asks him and turns around, pulling her long red hair over her shoulder.

He stepped closer to her in the large closet and his hands came to rest on her shoulders for a moment before his fingers found the zipper and he slowly pulled it down. The fingers on his other hand lightly slid down the newly exposed skin that the zipper revealed, causing her to shiver a little. When the zipper reached the top of her butt, he leaned forward and pressed a soft and full kiss to the back of her neck and her eyes closed with the warm sensation of it. "Thanks." she says a little breathlessly to him as she feels him step a little away from her.

Her dress falls to the floor, leaving her in her underwear and she reaches for a comfortable purple t-shirt and a pair of jeans, slipping them on. Jace does the same thing. He takes off the rest of his suit and puts on some more comfortable clothing in a companionable silence the two of them are sharing before she follows him out of the closet and into the kitchen. "Do you want to order something for dinner?" she asks softly when he opens the fridge door and looks at it's contents.

"That sounds fine." he says as he shuts the door and leans over to her and kisses her briefly before heading out to the living room. She goes and grabs her phone from their room and orders some Chinese from his favorite place that him and Alec go to all of the time. They don't offer delivery except for him and Alec and right now, she's unbelievably thankful for it. She hopes that his favorite food will help lift his spirits some.

As she is ordering, she hears his phone ring that he has with him and answer it while she is in their bedroom. The restaurant is busier than usual and she has to wait on hold for a while before someone finally takes her order. When she is done, she walks out of the room and into the living room. When she gets there, there is a very drastic change in the mood than when she left only a couple of minutes ago.

Jace is standing at his wall of windows, looking out, with his phone pressed to his ear. His posture is unbelievably tense and rigid while his free hand is clenched into a fist at his side. "Jace?" she asks worriedly and starts to walk towards him. "What's wrong?"

The moment he hears her voice, he takes the phone away from his ear and ends the call. Something about the action makes her stop in her tracks. "Jace?" she asks. "Is everything okay?"

She sees his shoulders move up and down as he takes a deep breath and then he is slowly turning to face her. When his eyes meet hers, they aren't the eyes of the Jace that she knows and loves. They are the cold, hard eyes of Jonathan Herondale; leader of a ruthless mafia. "Jace?" she asks feeling a slight roll of fear in the pit of her stomach at this new look.

"My mother got the autopsy report back." he says curtly while looking coldly into her eyes. She doesn't say anything in response, feeling that she should just be quiet in this moment. "It wasn't a heart attack that killed my father." His voice is clipped and his tone is growing colder with every word that comes out of his mouth.

"Oh my God, Jace?" she says with surprise. "Then...how? What happened?" Her brows furrow with worry and she starts to move toward him to try and calm him down or comfort him; whichever he will let her do.

"Stop." he says to her forcefully, holding his hand out in warning for her to not take another step.

"Jace?" she says surprised after she stops where she is. "What's going on?"

"He inhaled a poison; probably cyanide." Jace says flatly.

"But...how?" she asks in confusion.

"From cigar smoke." he says with a deadly tone to his voice.

Her eyes widen and her mouth falls open in shock. For a moment, she stands there frozen as her brain processes what he just told her. It actually takes her a while to fully realize what that information could make it look like. It looks like she... "Jace. I had nothing to do with that." she tells him seriously. "Are you sure that it came from the cigars? It could have come from..."

"Where, Clary?" he shouts angrily, cutting her off. "Where else could it have come from?! He was alone and in his office smoking the cigars that _YOU GAVE HIM_!"

"Jace!" she says shakily, holding her hands out to him. "I didn't do anything! I would never do that to you! I love you!"

"You're a fucking _LIAR_!" he shouts at her. "You had to know! Your family murdered my father!" He takes a small step towards her and she can see the hurt and betrayal he feels flash painfully across his face. His grief for his father is clouding his judgement and thoughts in this moment, making him unable to think rationally. At least that is what she tells herself.

She takes a small step backwards and then the doorknob to the penthouse starts to jiggle. She hears Jordan yell her name through the door but she doesn't respond. Her eyes and thoughts are trained solely on Jace. She has to get him to understand, get him to realize that she had no idea. That she had nothing to do with it. "Please, Jace. You have to believe me that even if my family did put poison in those cigars, I had no idea. I had nothing to do with it. You have to believe me." she says a little pleadingly. "Please, Jace. You have to believe me."

"Liar!" he shouts loudly and she can see a tear spring free from his eye. "You're a Morgenstern! You betrayed me! I let you in my home and you betrayed me! This was all just part of some master plan, wasn't it? You probably laughed behind my back for being such a fool and falling for your lies! You never cared about me at all!"

The rattling of the doorknob grows more insistent accompanied by a flurry of bangs on the door. "Clary? Is everything okay?" Jordan shouts but she doesn't answer because she doesn't know if it is okay. " _NO!_ That's not true! I love you, Jace!" she shouts at him. "You know I do." Tears had now started falling down her face in a torrent. "I would never hurt you. You have to believe that. Think about this for a moment!"

Another tear rolls out of Jace's eyes and it breaks her heart. He is so hurt right now and now he thinks that she killed his father. "Jace, please." she says as her voice shakes with her quiet crying. "I love you. I would never..."

Jordan bursts through the door then and Clary turns around and looks at him. His eyes go from her to the enraged looking Jace and he moves like lightning. He grabs Clary by the waist and starts to pull her backwards towards the door. Max steps in the room and looks confused and worried for a moment before pulling out a gun and holding it unsurely pointed at the ground. "Jordan!" she shouts at him. "Let me go!" She has to get out of his grasp and back to Jace. She has to convince him that she didn't do what he thinks she did. If he wasn't so emotionally unstable from just going to his father's funeral then surely he would be able to act more rationally and see that she was telling the truth. Right?

"Jace." she chokes out again. "Listen to me."

Jordan is steadily pulling her back and is at the door to the penthouse now. "Clary." Jordan says sternly. "It doesn't look like he wants to listen to you right now."

Clary struggles against his hold around her waist again. She knows that she could easily get away from him but for some reason, her brain can't remember how to tell her body to fight him off. All of her thoughts are focused solely on trying to get Jace to listen to her. Get him to believe her. The way his eyes are looking at her right now is breaking her heart. He looks completely and utterly shattered behind the angry glare that is focused at her. His one hand is still clenched into a tight fist while the other is gripping his phone in his hand so hard that even from across the large room, she can see his white knuckles. "Let me go, Jordan!" she shouts as he starts to pull her through the door. Tears are now readily falling from her cheeks and are hitting her shirt and Jordan's arm that is wrapped around her waist. She grabs onto the door frame tightly and stops Jordan from pulling her out of the penthouse. "Don't do this, Jace! Please! I love you! You have to know that I had no idea! Please!"

" _GET OUT!_ " Jace suddenly shouts so loud that she feels the vibration of his booming voice in the door frame. The anger and hurt that is in his eyes when he shouts this shocks her. He's never sounding like that when talking to her or looked at her with such anger and disgust. The last thing she sees is a fat tear roll out of Jace's right eye as she lets go of the door frame and Jordan pulls her away.

He drags her to the elevator where he starts to furiously punch the down button. His arm is still wrapped around her waist while she stares blankly into the penthouse, only seeing the short wall of the entryway on the one side and a feeling of numbness starts to spread through her. Max appears after another second and she feels Jordan reach for his gun. Max looks at her confused and slightly angry but all he does is shut the door with a definitive click, locking her away from the happy life that was hers just a moment ago.

"What the hell was that about?" Jordan asks with intense curiosity. "He looked like he was going to kill someone."

She can feel how tense he is behind her while she feels almost completely numb at this point. Shock has started to take over her senses and all she can do is answer him in a flat voice as she stares at the penthouse door. "He thinks I poisoned and killed his father."

"What?!" Jordan exclaims with disbelief. The elevator doors open then and she feels Jordan pull her backwards again into it. She doesn't take her eyes off of the door, believing deep down inside of her that surely Jace would fling the door open and come and get her. Tell her that he believes her. When her view of the door is cut off, she finally looks to Jordan who moves to stand in front of her as the elevator doors close. "What is going on, Clary?"

"I don't really know." she says numbly. "His mom called him and told him that he died from being poisoned and didn't die from a heart attack like they thought."

"And they think that you somehow did it? That's insane." he says with shock and disbelief.

"He said that the poison was inhaled...from cigar smoke." Clary says to him as she looks into his eyes and watches as realization of the seriousness of the situation flits across his face.

"Shit." he remarks lowly and pulls out his phone. He pushes one number and then puts it to his ear. Whoever is on the other end answers quickly and then Jordan says, "Miss Morgenstern is in need of extraction from Mr. Herondale's penthouse. I've got her safe right now and have a car waiting but things could turn ugly."

In the quietness of the elevator she hears the person's reply. "We'll have an escort there in two minutes."

"We'll be blocks away by then. Just have them waiting." Jordan replies and hangs up the phone.

"I can't believe this is happening." she says quietly and to herself. "I should go back up there and get him to understand."

She starts to reach for the elevator button to go back up but Jordan catches her hand. "That isn't the best idea, Clary." he says firmly yet gently to her. "He looked completely irrational."

"That's why I have to go back up there." she says with exasperation; her voice growing slightly louder. "He needs me. I can calm him down if I can touch him. He needs my arms around him to help him think. He won't hurt me."

"Clary." Jordan says, placing both of his hands on her shoulders and dipping his head to make eye contact with her. His tone is soft yet firm. "He was looking incredibly angry and all of his anger was directed towards you at that moment. There was no way that he was going to react any other way when he got that call other than instantly suspect you of betraying him. I would have agreed with you earlier if you said that he would never hurt you but after seeing his face up there...I can't say that for sure anymore."

"But I would never do that to him." Clary says as she starts to cry again. "I love him, Jordan."

"I know." he replies softly. "We'll figure this out." He wraps her in his arms and she grabs a hold of him; her arms coming up to hug him around his waist. Her body starts to shake with the force of her cries just as the elevator doors open to the underground garage. Jordan instantly spins around and pulls out the gun tucked into the back of his pants. He sticks his head out the door and looks around for a second and then he is running; pulling Clary along by her wrist behind him. Her legs are moving out of sheer habit and not by her will at this point. She has just turned herself onto autopilot for the moment, still unable to fully process what is happening. The only sign of her distress being the tears that won't stop falling from her eyes.

They reach a black SUV and then Jordan is practically throwing her into the back seat where she falls over and then he hurriedly jumps in the drivers seat. He cranks up the vehicle and then peels out of the parking space. Unable to find the will or want to sit up, she just lays there in the back seat where Jordan threw her. Tears are falling out of her eyes faster than she can count at that point and soon the leather seat underneath her face is soaking wet. The car's engine is revving and Jordan is weaving in and out of traffic in effort to get her out of Herondale territory as fast as he can.

Once they start to cross the Brooklyn bridge, Jordan chances a glance back to Clary and his heart sinks at the sight. Her eyes are pointed at the back seat but he can tell that isn't what she is looking at. They are unfocused and lifeless as tears silently stream from her eyes. She just looks so broken. Clary, who is the toughest woman he's ever met, looks completely broken and in absolute shock. His jaw flexes as he looks back out ahead of him to the road. His first thought is that her father did this. That he used her to enact a plan that he had and used her relationship with Jace as collateral damage. But this goes against everything he's ever observed about Valentine. He is a good father who loves his children and would never do something like that to his 'princess', as he calls her when she's not around. None of this makes any sense. Not once has he heard anything, or even just a rumor of Valentine planning anything like this. What he does know is that he needs to call Maia. Clary is going to need her when she gets home.

* * *

Jace watches as Max closes the door to his penthouse and locks it. All he can feel right now is rage. His father was _murdered_. He didn't die of a heart attack like they thought. He was poisoned...with the cigars that Clary gave him.

He knows that he is crying and for the life of him, he can't stop. He feels Max's eyes on him so he turns around and faces the window, cutting off his view of his face. "Jace." Max says softly and with trepidation. "What just happened?"

Rage starts to bubble up in Jace's chest again as he thinks about his father's murder. He angrily wipes his face clean of tears then turns around then and places his hands on the table along the back of one of his couches and leans heavily on it. When he sees one of Clary's elastic hair bands on top of it along with a pair of his cuff links and a small glass lamp that she bought, anger rises up like a flame again and he sweeps his hands along the top of it; making everything fly off the table and land on the ground. The lamp falls to the floor and shatters into tiny pieces while her hair band rolls under his couch. For some unknown reason, her hair band rolling away unscathed pisses him off.

He bends down then, his anger consuming all of his rational thoughts and grabs the back of the couch. He pulls it up swiftly, flipping it over and finding the hair band he wants. He picks it up and stretches it with both hands until it snaps under the pressure and then throws it again across the room. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows how ridiculous that was. It was just a stupid fucking elastic hair band...but it was _her_ hair band.

How could she do that to him? To them? None of it makes sense. Did she not think that he would find out? That he would just assume that it was a heart attack and not do an autopsy? "Jace?" Max says tentatively and he looks up to him. "What is going on?"

"My father was murdered. He was poisoned." he tells him flatly with his voice gruff as he tries to reign in his anger.

"And I gather that you think Clary did it?" Max says surprised. "That's insane. Why would you think she did it?"

Jace cuts his eyes up to Max and levels them at him. "Because it was the cigars she gave him for his birthday that poisoned him." Jace says and he watches as Max's eyes widen with shock.

"I don't believe it." Max says definitively shaking his head. "I can't believe that she would do that. You two are...perfect together. You're so in love."

Jace starts to shake his head harder and harder as Max is speaking. He doesn't want to hear about how 'in love' they are...or were...or she pretended to be...or..." _SHUT UP!_ " Jace yells at him and brings his hands up to his hair. He grabs onto it just above his ears and pulls a little in anger. "It was all a fucking _lie_! Michael was right. She used me."

"Jace." Max says pleadingly. "Listen to yourself. I know you don't believe that. You're still upset from the funeral."

Jace's eyes flare with anger as he looks into Max's eyes. The dark haired man shrinks back a little from Jace's angry glare as he says, " _Do not_ tell me what to believe." through clenched teeth. "Get the fuck out of here!"

Max just simply nods and turns to leave. As soon as the door is shut, Jace's strength fails him and he falls to his knees. This is too much. Too much to process. The only thing that was getting him through his father's death was Clary and now he finds out that she is the reason for it...no. She can't be. Surely her family could do it, but could she? One thing is for sure is that she brought the thing that killed his father to him and wrapped it with a pretty bow. Maybe she didn't know but he can't think about that right now. He's still too angry and there is this awful pulling sensation in his chest. It feels like his heart is trying to fall out of his rib cage and onto the floor. It's the most awful feeling.

After a moment, he realizes what that feeling is. Betrayal and hurt. He feels so betrayed and so unbearably hurt and it came from the one person he never expected it to. All thoughts leave his head then and he just lets the emotional turmoil that is rolling around in him out in one long loud scream of frustration. It's so loud and filled with pain that he is surprised that a human could make such a horrifying noise. His body sags heavily as he runs out of air from screaming and then he is still. His head hangs in between his shoulders as his hands fall to either side of him. He doesn't know what to do in that moment. The only thought that runs through his head is that his father would know exactly what to do...but that isn't exactly helping.

* * *

Clary looses all sense of time as the streetlights that are turning on in the city pass as night starts to fall. The repetition of the streetlights blinking in the back seat of the SUV is somehow calming to her. Her legs are pulled up flush with her chest and she has wrapped her arms around them. She still has no idea what has just happened. All she knows is the feeling she felt when Jace looked at her with contempt and anger as Jordan was pulling her out of their place...his place. That shocked her. She never in a million years thought that he would look at her with anything other than love and seeing his face then was nothing less than decimating. He looked so hurt and betrayed and angry.

How could he think that she would do that to him? That was, hands down, the worst part. He actually believed that she would do that. That she would kill the father he loved and looked up to. Didn't he know her by now? Surely he knows that she loves him? She's only told him a thousands times. She couldn't fake that kind of love that she showed him. No one could. And he just dismissed her and everything they have ever shared in the blink of an eye? How could he do that?

It had to be because his emotions are so raw from the funeral. Surely he wouldn't be acting like this if he were thinking clearly. He would never believe that she would do that. Right?

A shrill ringing interrupts her internal monologue and she looks up to see Jordan hurriedly answering his phone. "Yes, Mr. Morgenstern?" he says lowly into the phone. He is quiet for a moment and then says, "We are only a few minutes away." while looking in the mirror and eyeing Clary watching him as she lay in the back seat. "It would be better to explain things in person." There is another pause and then a quick 'Yes sir.' is said and then he hangs up.

That is when a thought crosses her mind. _Her father_. Could he have done this? They were his cigars and he knew that she was getting them for Stephen. She never considered her father a monster, even though many would heartily disagree, but if he did this...did this to her...then he was undoubtedly was a monster. If he could destroy his only daughter's happiness and put her life in danger by not warning her what he had done after it happened...no. He wouldn't do that to her. He couldn't. She would hate him forever. There is no forgiveness for that kind of betrayal by someone in your family that you love so fully. But...there is no other explanation. She sure as hell didn't do it.

She brings her hands up to her face roughly and presses it against her hands. My God, she is so confused right now. Her heart doesn't know what to do. Should it break because of what happened with Jace or should it hold together; trusting that she would figure this whole thing out and be back in his arms in no time? Should it grow angry and scream and shout that how could Jace believe that she would do that or should it feel the desperation that was starting to creep into her as she thought about what if she wasn't able to 'fix' this giant mess?

Her confused and slightly hysterical thoughts were cut off when she realized that they had stopped and Jordan was getting out of the driver's seat. Could they already be at her parent's house? She gets her answer when Jordan flings open the back door and holds out his hand for her to grab. "Clary. You're home. You have to get out of the car now." His voice is calm and he sounds as if he is trying not to startle her. Like she is a wild animal.

She stays still, looking at him, until she hears her father's voice. His voice is raised and he is yelling something. What it is, she has no idea because a ringing has started to fill her ears. An anger that she has never felt before bubbles up in her chest and before she knows it, she is sitting up and swinging her feet out onto the ground.

Her eyes easily find her father and then she is shouldering past Jordan and stomping over to her father who is down the steps to the front door. Her eyes narrow dangerously in fury as his eyes find hers. "What the fucking hell is going on?" he says sternly as he makes it to the middle of the yard.

She reaches him then and she finds that her hands have come up and she pushes him hard in the chest. "Did you do it?!" she shouts in his face. Her upper lip has curled back over her teeth slightly while her eyes have taken on a more feral look. "Was it you?!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Valentine shouts, grabbing Clary's wrist's and pinning her hands down by her sides. She could easily get out of this hold but doesn't because it's her father who is holding her and whether or not she is mad at him, she still respects him as her father.

"Don't play dumb, father. It doesn't suit you." she snarls and his brows furrow immensely at her. Her heart is pounding in her chest as she stares him down. She has to know if it was him but at the same time, if it was, it would destroy her. It would mean that she lost not only Jace but her father too and possibly her brother if he knew anything about it.

"What has gotten into you?" he asks angrily. "The only thing I know is I get a call from Jordan saying that things went south between you and Jace and that he was rushing back here with you. My men are calling me saying that Herondale's men are moving around like frantic rats and that they have cut off all routes through their territory that we take. There has been a complete breakdown of communication and I just want someone to tell me _what the hell is going on_!" He shouts the last part sounding very impatient.

"Stephen." she says as way of an explanation. "He was murdered."

Valentine's eyes widen a little with genuine surprise. His reaction catches Clary off guard and she takes a tiny step back even though her father isn't letting go of her. " _WHAT?!_ " he says in a whisper yell.

"The autopsy came back and it said that he was poisoned." she explains further, watching her father closely. So far, he has looked like all of this is completely new information.

"And they think that we did it?" he says putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "Why would they think that?" His fingers relax a little around her wrists and she jerks them out of his hands.

"Because the poison was inhaled. It was from the cigars that I gave him...that _we_ gave him." she says while studiously watching his face. His eyes widen a little with surprise while his mouth falls open a little and a small shocked breath is sucked in through his lips. His face freezes like that but his eyes seem to be processing this information furiously. She can see his brain working overtime after what she told him.

"So..." she says harshly and his eyes fly back to her. "Did you do it?" Her jaw flexes as she waits for her father's answer. In that moment, it feels like her world has stopped and only will begin to spin again once she hears what he has to say. He raises his hands up and reaches out to place them on her upper arms but she steps back away from him. She doesn't want him touching her until she gets an answer from him that she believes.

Valentine flinches a little at her action but lowers his hands back to in front of him. He locks eyes with her and she can see the openness that he is trying to portray to her. "I swear, Clary, I did not poison those cigars. I wouldn't do that to you. I would never put you in that kind of danger and not tell you. Never." His voice is unwavering and there is a tone to it that he only uses with his family. It is vulnerable and pleading, asking her to believe him.

When she remains quiet and still, he steps closer to her and this time, she allows him to rest his hands on the tops of her arms. He takes another small step closer and she has to turn her head up to look at him. His white blonde hair that is always perfectly combed back has started to come loose and fall onto his forehead. He waits until she looks back to his eyes and when she does, there is nothing but honesty and love looking back at her. "I promise on my mother and my sister, God rest their souls, that I had nothing to do with Stephen's death." Valentine says to her.

She finally allows herself to take a breath and her world starts to spin again as she can see the truth of her father's words. Tears start to well up in her eyes again and her bottom lip starts to quiver with the effort not to cry but it's too late. Once the first tear is out of her eyes, it is like a dam is released, allowing a torrent of others to follow in it's wake. She just barely manages to hold in her sobs and remains quiet as she cries, not wanting her father to think that she is weak. Valentine brings his hands up to cup his daughter's face for a moment before pulling her into his chest and wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "I don't know what to do." she says shakily into his quickly dampening shirt. "He was so angry and Jordan dragged me out of there before I could talk to him. Before I could convince him that it wasn't me. That I had no idea."

"Come inside, Seraphina Clarissa." he says soothingly to her. The sound of her full name coming out of his mouth is rare and she lets him begin to pull her inside. He only called her that when he was trying to comfort her when she was a little girl. He would hold her and hug her and say to her, "Oh, my Seraphina Clarissa. Everything is okay because I love you. More than anything." She would cling to him then like she is doing now, knowing that everything would be okay because her daddy had told her it would be.

If only things were that uncomplicated now. She doesn't know that anyone will be able to fix what has happened no matter how hard they try. Sure, Jace might actually believe that she didn't know that the cigars were poisoned but that doesn't mean that he would ever be able to trust her again. If the roles were reversed and it was her father who was killed, she's not sure that she would be able to trust him again.

They reach the steps to the door then and climb carefully up them, taking care to mind the ice that covers them, and walk into the warm home. "Where's Mom?" Clary asks as she wipes away some of the tears that have silently poured down her face.

"She was out but I have her being brought back here." Valentine replies and wraps a coat that was hanging in the foyer around her. She looks up at him with a questioning look and he says, "You are shivering cold. Did you not realize that have no jacket or shoes on? It's eighteen degrees outside."

She looks down at herself and sure enough, she is in the old purple t-shirt and jeans that she slipped on when they got back from the funeral. Her feet were an unhealthy color of red that was verging on turning back to white in some places, and not in the good way. Jordan dragged her out of there very quickly and she had no time or the thought to put either shoes or a jacket on. Hell, her purse, phone, and half of her wardrobe was still over there. "Oh." is all she manages to say though as she looks back up at her father who looks more worried now.

He starts to lead her to his office when the sound of pounding feet comes barreling down the stairs. Clary looks up to see her brother hurrying down the stairs, bare chested and in sweat pants with Izzy trailing not far behind him, closing a silk robe around her waist. "What is going on?" he says looking to his father. "Why are there cars pulling up everywhere outside of the house?

His eyes then drift to Clary and they widen with surprise as he takes in her appearance. She is sure that her makeup from earlier today is horribly smudged from her crying and is running down her face while her hair feels like it is in huge tangles from being dragged around by Jordan and then rolling around in the back seat while he drove like a mad man.

"Clary?!" Jonathan says making a b-line for her and placing his hands on her face and making direct eye contact with her. "What happened? Did he hurt you?" His eyes in that moment had started to harden and would soon start to turn to stone if he was allowed to keep thinking that. "No." she replied surprisingly stern for her emotional state. She holds his gaze for another few seconds before the tears that she has willed to stop for only a minute break free again.

Jonathan, sensing that he won't get any more information out of her in her state right now, looks over to his father for an explanation. Her face falls and she brings her hands up to cover her crying and Izzy steps forward then and wraps her in a tight hug. "Stephen Herondale was apparently murdered. Poisoned." she hears her father say to Jonathan.

"What?" Jonathan says sounding genuinely surprised.

"And they say it was with the cigars that Clary gifted him from my collection." Valentine continues in a deathly serious tone that portrays the seriousness of the situation in that one sentence. Izzy tenses a little but doesn't let go of Clary or say anything.

"Fuck." Jonathan says breathlessly and although her face is buried in Izzy's shoulder, she knows that Jonathan is running a hand through his hair like he does when he is stressed. "But, we sure as fuck didn't do it." her brother continues.

"No. We didn't." Valentine says and there is truth and finality that rings in his voice. "But now, Jace thinks Clary did it and Jordan had to drag her out of his apartment because he was, as Jordan put it, 'Losing control'.

"I didn't do it. I didn't know." Clary says brokenly into Izzy's silk robe and her friend's hand comes up and hold her head to her shoulder.

"I know." Izzy says softly to her. "You love him. I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt him in any way."

"But he thinks I did." Clary says lifting her head up and making eye contact with her friend. "How could he think that? How could he think that I would, or even could, do that to him?"

"I don't know." she replies brushing a stray chunk of Clary's hair out of her face that had stuck to the wetness of her cheek. "Maybe he will realize it when he calms down. I've known Jace my whole life. When he gets angry, he lashes out and says and does things he doesn't mean in the heat of the moment. After he calms down, he begins to see reason again. You don't know this because he's never been mad at you. You two have always been so perfect together. He'll come around and then get to the bottom of everything."

"I don't know, Izzy." Clary says shaking her head. Izzy's hands come up and rest on either side of her face and hold it still. "He was _so_ angry and I could see how hurt he was in his eyes. He looked so broken and he thinks that I am the reason behind it. He said I betrayed him and used him." Her words had started to become slightly hysterical towards the end and Izzy started to shush her. "Clary, listen to me." she says leveling her eyes at her. "He'll calm down and begin to see reason again. He always does. He just needs a little time. He just lost his father and now he thinks he lost you."

"I don't want to lose him, Iz." Clary says as more tears start to roll out of her. A part of her hates that she is crying like this. She is Clary fucking Morgenstern. Smart, strong, independent, fearless, and has never needed anyone else in her life to make her feel whole. That is, until she met Jace. Now, just the slightest thought of losing him is enough to tear down her carefully constructed walls that she surrounds herself with and leave her a raw, emotion filled and terrified little girl. "I can't lose him."

"Shhh." Izzy says and pulls her back to her. She can hear that her father and brother have stepped away from them and are having a hurried and hushed conversation but she couldn't care less right now about that. All she can focus on is the tearing sensation in her chest as she thinks about what could happen with her and Jace's relationship. Since the worry of losing him had never entered her mind until tonight, the shock of how devastating it would be to her shocks her to the core. She would have never thought that she would rely on someone like she does Jace for love and support. Without him, she feels like she could easily fall into a dark and deep hole that would be incredibly hard to climb out of in one piece again and be the same person she was before. No, on second thought, it would be impossible.

* * *

 _I know. You hate me right now. This chapter was brutal. Poor Clary and poor, poor Jace._

 _As always, thanks a TON for reading and don't forget to review!_


	20. Chapter 20

There is something hard and cold pressing up against his face. Jace rolls over onto his back and instead of feeling the softness of his bed, more of the hard cold he was trying to escape from awaits him. He groans and cracks open his eyes and is surprised when he sees the ceiling of his living room instead of the ceiling of his bedroom staring back at him. He's lying in the middle of his living room on the cold floor. From the light filling the room, he guesses that it is early morning.

Before his mind can process anything else, there is a loud banging noise that comes from his front door and he cranes his neck around to the sound. The noise must have been what woke him up. "Jace!" he hears someone shout on the other side of the door and he groans once more. There is a deep pounding in his head with each new noise and when he brings his hands up to cover his ears, his left arm knocks over an empty bottle of whiskey. He must have drank so much that he passed out on the floor. It clinks loudly on the ground, making his head pound even more, and then he remembers why he was drinking.

A wave of hurt and anger washes over him in the next second and he finds himself pushing up and off of the floor. He stumbles over to the door and unlocks the numerous locks, including the one that is only on his side of the door without a key hole on the other side, and then flings the door open to find Alec.

His eyes widen with surprise when he sees Jace and then he is pushing his way into the penthouse. "You look horrible." Alec states with a hint of worry.

"Yeah?" Jace replies with a snarky tone. "Fuck you, too." He slams the door shut and then starts to stumble his way over to his liquor cabinet in the kitchen. The pain in his chest is too much to handle when he's sober.

"Jace?" Alec says in a sort of chastising tone. "Where are you going?"

"To drown my sorrows in whiskey. Care to join?" Jace reaches his cabinet then and opens it up and reaches for a fresh bottle of whiskey. He pops the top off and takes a long drink of the liquid, forgoing a glass. The burn of the alcohol is a welcome feeling as it slides down his throat and he anticipates the feeling of numbness that it will bring with it. He gets three large gulps down before the bottle is yanked away from him.

"Stop it." Alec says in a fatherly tone.

Jace doesn't even bother looking over to him. Instead, he reaches for another bottle in his cabinet and pulls it down. Alec reaches out and takes that one away from him as well before he can even open it up. "Why do you keep taking my liquor away from me?" Jace asks. His voice is monotone and flat and it's something that he's never heard before come out of his mouth. He then reaches up and grabs another bottle but this time, he turns away from Alec and gets one large gulp down before that one is snatched away as well.

"Stop this, Jace." his friend says stepping in front of him and locking eyes with him. "Your mother told me what is going on. She was worried when you wouldn't answer your phone and asked me to come over here to check on you. She was worried that Clary had killed you too." He sneers angrily when her name rolls out of his mouth.

Anger starts to boil up inside of Jace when Alec says that and he explodes. He reaches out and knocks the liquor bottle that Alec just took from him out of his hands and it crashes to the floor and shatters; spilling the contents all over the floor. The smell of alcohol instantly rises up and fills his kitchen as he takes a step towards Alec and comes chest to chest with him. "Don't you fucking say her name like that." he growls at him. "You weren't here. You didn't see what happened."

"Then why don't you tell me." he says as he crosses his arms across his chest, looking unbothered by Jace's threat and his anger.

"She looked completely surprised." Jace says to him in a tight voice. "Like she had no idea. She was crying."

"Oh? She cried? That _must_ mean she is innocent! She is a Morgenstern." Alec supplies with disgust. "She was _supposed_ to look surprised and start crying to try and convince you that she didn't do it. Her father has probably been training her to do this her whole life. The Morgensterns are a hateful and vindictive people. I never trusted her. I knew she would destroy you and..."

" _SHUT THE FUCK UP!_ " Jace screams at the top of his lungs in his face. Alec shrinks back a little then and looks surprised at the amount of anger that just came from his best friend.

Jace can feel that his face is beet red with anger and his heart is hammering loudly in his chest with the amount of blood that it is surging through his veins in this moment. His fists are clenched tightly at his sides and it is taking all of his self control not to hit his friend right now. He doesn't want to hear anything about _her_ right now. All he wants to do is drink. Drink until he passes out. It's the only way he can find relief from the horrible sensation in the pit of his stomach and the squeezing feeling in his heart.

He leans back away from Alec and slowly turns around. He goes to his liquor cabinet for the third time and grabs another bottle of whiskey and shoots his friend a look of warning. If he tries to take this one away from him, he will have to fight him for it. He pops the lid and then is sauntering back into the living room. Once he turns the corner and gets a look at what he's done, he is slightly surprised.

Both of his couches have been flipped over and the reclaimed wood coffee table has been smashed to splinters. There is a hammer over by the wall of windows and his television is laying face down on the floor with a hole in the back of it. He doesn't remember doing any of it.

He can hear Alec following behind him as he walks over to the far wall of the room where he leans his back against it and slowly slides down it, having no where else to sit. He brings the bottle up to his mouth and tosses back a mouthful of the alcohol and relishes the burn down his throat that comes with it. His eyes close and his head falls back to rest on the wall.

"Jace." Alec says softly. "You can't do this."

"Do what?" Jace quips back.

"This." he says with emphasis. "Destroy everything. Drink till you forget what's going on."

"Oh yeah?" Jace says as one side of his mouth quirks up into a depressing smirk, "Just watch me."

Alec's voice gets closer to him and he thinks that he has probably crouched down in front of him. He still won't open his eyes though to find out for sure. "The family needs you. Your mother needs you."

"And what about what I need?" he replies, opening his eyes and narrowing them at Alec. "Where do I fit into what everyone needs?"

"What do you need then, Jace?"

"I need to drink till I pass out. I need to be alone." He levels his eyes at Alec who's face has turned determined and then he is sliding over to the wall next to Jace. He leans against the wall next to him and takes off his winter coat and throws it over the back of the overturned couch closest to him. Alec remains silent and looks straight ahead to the wall that the television used to be on with a resigned and blank expression. "Then drink." he tells Jace flatly. "But I'm not leaving you alone."

Jace looks over to his friend and then looks back down to the bottle in his hands. As long as he stays quiet, then they won't have a problem.

* * *

When Clary hears a door click, she rolls over in her bed and cracks one of her eyes open. Even though her curtains are pulled tightly shut, she can tell that it is early afternoon by the amount of light that is seeping through the edges. "Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up." she hears Maia say in a whisper.

Her head is pounding and she grabs two handfuls of her covers and pulls them over her head. The darkness that engulfs her is comforting and seems to ease the pain in her forehead. "What time is it?" she asks, her voice sounding raspy and dry like a heavy smoker's voice.

"It's almost one o'clock." Maia says and she feels the bed dip with her weight as she sits down. She feels Maia's hand find her leg through the blanket and she rubs up and down for a moment in a comforting fashion. "Do you want to get up?"

"What would be the point?" she says dryly back to her. "I don't have anywhere to go. No one to see."

"Your parents and Jon are worried about you."

"I don't care." She rolls over to where her face is facing Maia and she pulls down the covers to look at her friend. "I want to call Jace."

Maia doesn't miss a beat as she says, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"I don't care what you think." Clary says with acid dripping from her tone. "Give me a phone so I can call him. I need to tell him that we didn't do it."

"He won't listen to you. He won't believe you, Clary. Your father is downstairs right now trying to figure out what happened. He's saying that none of his men would have been able to do it. No one had access to his personal collection except for the manager at the cigar store...and he's already watched the security footage from inside his humidor. The only people that stepped foot in there that day are you and Sebastian and all he did was pull the box down for you. So...it wasn't him either. No one knew that you were going to get those cigars for Stephen except you, Jonathan, Izzy, Sebastian, and your father."

Clary's anger started to recede while Maia talked. She didn't even think about the possibility of Sebastian doing it. If she had been rational enough to think when everything happened, then she probably would have fingered him, thinking he had done it. But now, hearing that there was no way he did it because of the camera footage, it makes her feel a little better. She's glad to know that the time they spent together seemed to mean something to him and she's glad that he wouldn't do something like that to her. "I didn't even think about that until now." she admits sitting up in her bed. "I'm glad that he had nothing to do with it but that still leaves the question as to who did. The only other person to touch them was me and Jace the night of the party."

"And that is why I think it was an inside job." Maia says pointedly while eyeing her friend. "I don't think the poison came from our side. I think it came from his."

"What?" Clary says in surprise. "But the only other person to touch them was Jace and there is no way he did it." She flips the covers back and sets her feet on the floor. Her foggy brain from only a minute ago is now running a mile a minute as she thinks about the possibilities. "It would only make sense that it was someone at the party, right?"

"That's what your dad and Jonathan have been talking about for the past two hours." she tells her. "I was supposed to see if you were awake so you could tell them who was at the party to help them figure it out."

Clary pushes the pain that was crushing her last night back and lets her analytical mind take over. Seeing Jace look at her like he did and having him say those things to her and think that she killed his father was the most gut wrenching thing she's ever experienced. But she couldn't think about that right now. If she figured this whole mess out and then presented him the evidence to prove that it wasn't her or her family, then all would be well. Her world would right itself again.

She stands up and takes a step to leave her room when Maia catches her by her hand. "You should probably take a shower before going downstairs." Maia says softly to her.

Clary then looks down at herself and sees that she is still in the purple t-shirt that she put on at Jace's. Her pants are gone though and she is only wearing a pair of underwear to cover her bottom half. She walks over to her floor length mirror and surveys the rest of herself. Her hair is matted and sticking up in places that would have looked comical if the circumstances that caused it were different. Her black eyeliner and mascara are smeared down her cheeks from her crying and her soft pink lip stick is streaked across her left cheek.

A few seconds pass as she takes in her horrifying appearance before she strips of her shirt without a second thought and tosses it over to Maia. "Burn that shirt." she tells her. She doesn't want one reminder of what happened yesterday and that shirt will always be the shirt she wore when Jace threw her out of his home. She then steps into her adjoined bathroom and shuts the door behind her.

After a quick shower and braiding her wet hair down in front of her right shoulder, she put on some maroon tights and a knitted navy blue sweater than hung down to her mid thigh and went downstairs to join her father and brother. She turns left once she gets to the bottom of the stairs and starts heading towards the front of the house where her father's main office is. As she gets closer, she can hear her brother's voice rise with frustration and then her mother's voice say something in a soothing tone.

Her mother. She only saw her for a moment last night and she wasn't exactly rational. She kicked her out of her room and said some very not nice things to her when she had started to say that she didn't need Jace anyway.

She rounds arrives at the door and turns the doorknob then steps in the room. Everyone stops what they are doing and their heads snap over to her while their eyes study her. "How are you today?" her father asks, stepping around his desk and walking over to her.

"I'm fine." she replies and she hopes that they believe her. "I just want to figure this mess out so everything can go back to normal."

"I hope that we can do that for you." Jonathan says to her from over by Valentine's desk. "But I wouldn't get my hopes up. Herondale's men have sealed up every line of communication and when we tried to send a message through to him stating that we had nothing to do with it, they shot at our men so they couldn't get close enough to give it to them."

For a brief moment, Clary thinks about trying to send an e-mail to Jace but that is just stupid. One of the first things that her father taught her was not to leave an electronic footprint and provide proof of the family's activities. So that idea is gone as quickly as it comes. "Why wouldn't they at least hear us out?" she asks looking up at her father.

"Because to them, there can be no other explanation for what happened other than we killed Stephen Herondale." he explains. "We are the enemy and they will believe that we did it because that is what they want to believe instead of investigating and finding out that who really did it. They have a traitor among them and the only ones who know it are us. Do you really think that they would believe us even if we were able to get them a message?"

Clary starts to shake her head. "No. No they wouldn't." she says mostly to herself as she folds her arms across her chest in thought. "We are an easy source to blame for his murder. Someone knew that and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike."

"And that is why we wanted to talk to you...if you're up to it." Jonathan says looking at her like he is expecting her to break down in tears at any moment.

"I'm up to it." she tells him surely. "If we can piece this together and come up with some hard evidence to prove our innocence, then they would have to listen to us."

"But in the meantime," Jocelyn says, speaking for the first time and rising from the small couch in the corner of the office, "I don't want any of you to take any unnecessary risks."

"Like what, Mom?" Clary asks dryly? "Going outside of the house?"

"Yes." she says sharply, not liking her daughter's tone. "I don't want a repeat of what happened with your aunt and grandmother."

Valenine's jaw clenches at her words and he turns and goes back to his desk. "Jace wouldn't try to kill me, mother." Clary says, rolling her eyes. "He loves me and once everything is sorted out, he'll be the one apologizing to me." When she says this, everyone in the room tenses considerably. It is clear that they doubt her confidence that Jace wouldn't try and kill her. "None of you believe me when I say that, do you?"

"It's not that we don't believe that you believe that, it's just that sometimes when people are angry and hurt, they can lash out and do things they normally wouldn't." Valentine says in a soft voice.

"That may be true but there is no way that Jace would try and kill me." she says with absolutely no doubt. "None of you know him like I do."

"Alright." Jonathan says holding his hands up. "We believe you. But at least take some extra security with you if you suddenly feel like a stroll. We've got our territory sealed up and covered pretty tightly and they haven't tried to breach it as of yet. But as of right now, there are a lot of unknowns. We don't know if he is going to want to strike back or wait to see what we do since they think we started another turf war."

Clary takes a deep breath as her eyes close and she brings her hand up and drags it down the length of her face roughly. "This whole thing is such a huge fucking mess." she mutters and groans slightly as a little bit of hurt starts to crawl it's way back out of the corner of her brain she shoved it to. She clamps down on that emotion and shoves it back to where she put it. If she is going to figure out who did this, she needs to be thinking clearly and she can't do that if she is emotionally distraught. "Okay. What do you need to know from me?" she asks looking up to her father.

"We need to know who was at that party." Valentine says as he sits down in his leather seat and slides up to his desk. He picks up a pen and pulls out a piece of paper and looks expectantly over at Clary. She walks over to stand next to him and leans forward and rests her hands on his desk. "There were the usuals." she starts out. "The Lightwoods. Robert, Mayrse, Alec, Max and Izzy was here, right?" she asks, looking over at her brother.

"She was." Jonathan says with a nod of his head. She wants to ask him how that whole situation is going but decides against it in the moment.

"Then there was Stephen's second, Michael Wayland and his third, George Penhallow. His daughter Aline was there as well. She's their information person. Whenever they need to find something out, Jace will automatically call her. But we didn't exactly talk much. She seemed occupied with her girlfriend most of the night and trying to fend off some sleazy guy who was the son of one of his bodyguards."

"And who else?" Valentine asks, writing down everything she says.

Clary goes down the list, ticking off everyone that she met that night, trying to remember all the names of the wives of all the important men there. Since the cigars were in her purse for most of the night and her purse was in the foyer closet, anyone who was there had access to it. That fact doesn't help at all. If there was only some way to narrow it down, then maybe they could start to make some head way with their little investigation.

"The next logical step would be to figure out who had something to gain by framing us and starting another war." Jonathan says after she goes over the list of people for the third time.

"In all honesty," Jocelyn says looking at her husband, "..they all did. The more territory they gain, the more people he will need to manage it. That would mean promotions for just about everyone and more money to go around because of it."

"Well that doesn't help at all." Clary says tiredly as she walks around her father's desk and sits in one of the chairs across from him.

Before anyone else can say anything, there is a sort of muffled commotion that sounds like it's coming from the front yard. It vaguely sounds like angry shouting and Clary begins to move towards the window to move the curtains and look outside. Valentine's phone then rings and he answers it after checking to see who it is. There is silence in the room as he listens to what whoever it is has to say and Clary pulls back the curtains and is surprised to see a very angry looking Sebastian standing by the front steps. There are three men blocking him from going further, one holding a phone to his ear. She briefly wonders what the hell he is doing here before her father says, "Let him in." and hangs up the phone.

She then watches as the one with the phone steps aside and Sebastian looks at him with a superior air but narrowed eyes as he pushes past the three men and climbs the stairs to the front door two at a time in a hurry. There is a knock at the door and Clary leans back from the window and looks over to the door. "I've got it." she hears Maia yell, sounding like she is coming from the kitchen. She appears, running by her father's opened office door, and opens the front door a moment later as Clary walks outside of her father's office.

Sebastian steps into the foyer and past a surprised looking Maia and his eyes start to scan his surroundings looking fairly worried. "Sebastian?" Clary says curiously. His eyes immediately snap over to her and relief floods his face. "What are you doing here?"

He lets out a relieved breath as his eyes scan her up and down, but not in a sexual way, in a way that makes her think he is checking her for injury. "I..." he says and pauses as he takes a few steps towards her. Even though he looks like he wants to run up and hug her, he stops when he is about four feet away. "I just heard about what is going on and...I just wanted to see if you were okay. Make sure you weren't hurt."

"Oh." Clary says in surprise as they stand there awkwardly for a moment. "I'm fine."

"That's...I can see that. That's good." he says as he swallows roughly and brings up one of his hands and runs it through his tousled hair. It looks like he'd been pulling at it by it's disheveled state. He then takes his hands and smooths down his shirt and makes sure that it is tucked in in the back self consciously. He had very clearly been very worried about her.

Her hands come up and she runs her fingers over the plaits in her braid that is pulled around to the front of her. She is about to say something else when she hears her father's voice call his name. "Sebastian. Can you come in here?" he asks.

Sebastian pushes his mouth together and gives her a quick smile and another once-over before starting to walk to Valentine's office. He passes by her and then stops in his tracks and turns to face her as she turns to look at him. He takes another breath as he makes eye contact with her and says with less awkwardness, "I was really worried about you. I'm so glad you're okay."

She isn't quite sure what to say to him so she gives him a small closed mouthed smile and then looks down to her feet to escape the look in his eyes. It is clear now, more than ever, that he still isn't over her with the way he is looking at her and she has no idea what to do with that information.

He steps away from her and walks into her father's office and she follows behind him after a few seconds. "How much do you know of what is going on?" Valentine asks Sebastian as he walks up to his desk.

"Only what the rumors are. That Stephen Herondale didn't die of a heart attack and that they are blaming Clary for his death." His voice changes slightly when he says that, growing tighter as he spoke. "How she supposedly did this, I don't know. No one could tell me that piece of information."

"Well," Valentine says as he takes off his reading glasses and sets them in front of him, "...that's pretty much the gist everything. The reason they are blaming Clary is because they say that the cigars she gave him from my collection were poisoned with cyanide."

"What?!" Sebastian says in a whisper yell of shock. "That's insane."

"Jace found out after the funeral and immediately jumped to the conclusion that Clary did it. Jordan had to drag her out of his apartment." Valentine says and Clary looks down at her feet in embarrassment. Did her father really have to say that that way? That she had to be dragged out?

"I wasn't exactly thinking rationally at the moment." she says as a way of defending herself, still looking at the ground. "I was trying to get him to believe me that I didn't do it." The memory of that horrible moment and the pain she felt starts to creep back to the forefront of her mind when she feels Maia's arms wrap around her shoulders. She had almost completely forgotten she was there when she saw Sebastian come through the door. She leans into her friend slightly and takes a few deep breaths to compose herself before looking back up to her family, trying her best to hold her head up high. She can't break down right now.

"But he didn't believe you, did he?" Sebastian asks softly. She looks over to him and shakes her head no gently. "Not at that moment." she replies.

Thankfully her father changes the subject...sort of. "And that leaves us trying to figure out who did it because this attack didn't come from us. If it was the cigars that were laced with poison, it was someone from his side that did it. But since you are here," her father looks pointedly to Sebastian, "..you can tell me who was in the store the day Clary got the cigars. I only have a camera on the walk in humidor where my collection is kept and not the whole store...for obvious reasons."

Her father conducts a lot of 'business' there and doesn't want a record of who goes in and out that could possibly incriminate him in some crime. "The manager told me that you were there that day running over some operating numbers for the store and I saw you and Clary on the camera when you got the cigars for her. What I want to know is was there anyone else there that day that seemed...out of place or asked too many questions."

Sebastian takes in what Valentine says and furrows his brows in thought as he goes back to that day in his memory. After a few moments of thought, he looks up and shakes his head no as he says, "I can't think of anyone suspicious that day. It was fairly slow for the most part while I was there. Then after I talked with Clary, I left in the next ten minutes. Nothing seemed out of place or strange. I mean, I knew that the manager had unlocked the humidor for Clary but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened."

Valentine, who had looked hopeful to hear something different, leans heavily back in his chair and runs his hand across his chin as his sign of stress. "This whole fucking thing is a nightmare." he mumbles to himself. "Now I'm just sitting here, waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don't know if they are going to attack or if they are going to figure all of this out on their own. Although I feel that the chances of the latter happening are astronomical. Whoever it was that did this, made it to where it would look like no one else but us; forever the enemy to them."

"Why don't you let me at least try and call Jace?" Clary says, stepping away from Maia and closer to her father. Instead of hearing a choruses of no like she expected, everyone remains quiet, even if their faces say that they don't think that will be a good idea. "I can tell him that we have the video from the cigar store. He'll see that they weren't tampered with on our end."

"Except for the time that you had them before his party...which was a long time." Jonathan says knowingly, making heavy eye contact with his sister. "You could have poisoned them then or one of us could have. There is too much missing time between when you got them to when you gave them to him."

"But I had lunch with Jace just after I got them." she says defensively. "I showed them to him and...then I put them back in my purse."

"Clary." Valentine says looking straight at her. "There were still three whole days between when you got them to when you gave them to Stephen. That's too much time to account for."

Clary knows he is right but there is still that is a part of her that believes that Jace will believe her if only she could talk to him. All of the time they spent together has to mean something to him. She knows that he loves her and surely he knows that she loves him. "I am still at least going to try and call him." she says with determination as she looks into her father's eyes. "It's literally the least I can do right now. I am the only one who could possible start a dialogue with him and you know it." She starts to move toward the phone at her father's desk and he looks like he is deciding if he wants to stop her or not. She can see the internal debate happening in his eyes and takes advantage of his unsure state and picks up the phone and quickly dials Jace's number.

The phone rings once before it goes to his voice mail. She hangs up and dials it again. The same thing happens and she purses her lips as she hangs up. Then, a thought occurs to her. In the commotion of last night, she left her purse and phone there along with everything else of hers. The room is exceptionally quiet as she then dials her number. It rings six times and then someone picks up. Her heart jumps into her throat and for a moment, there is nothing but silence. She can hear someone take a breath and then she says, "Jace?"

"Not exactly." an angry sounding voice says back to her. She immediately recognizes it. "Alec?" she asks.

"If you're calling to get your stuff back, then you're shit out of luck." he says with a clipped tone.

"I didn't call to get my stuff back. I called to talk to Jace." She remains calm, keeping her voice steady. She can feel every pair of eyes that are in the room burning into her.

"That isn't going to happen." Alec spits into the phone. "He doesn't want to talk to you ever again. In fact, I'm sure he hates you now. You killed his father. Do you think that is something he would ever forgive you for?" His voice at this point was pure acid. "I told him, I tried to warn him but he just _wouldn't listen_. You must be one hell of a good fuck to get him to abandon all of his thoughts of reason and good judgement and convince him that he loved you. I knew you would destroy him, you nasty whore. It's time you go back to the sewers where you belong and stay there. Good riddance." he finishes and hangs up the phone.

Clary just stands there, holding the phone to her face. She is shifting slightly from one foot to another and trying to choke back the tears that are so close to spilling over. After a silent moment, she swallows hard and slowly lowers the phone down and hangs it up. She can feel her face is flushed with hurt and she steels herself before looking up to meet everyone else's eyes in the room. "That was Alec. He wouldn't let me talk to him." she explains, leaving out the rest of it.

Her face must have betrayed her because then Maia hurries over to her and gives her a hug. Clary only allows it for a few seconds before she is stepping away from her friend and looking over to her father. "Excuse me for a moment." she says and then she is looking down at the ground as she walks as normally as she can out of the room. She is unbelievably thankful that she is able to hold it together long enough to make it to the stairs before her tears break free. Maia appears next to her then and wraps a supportive arm around her shoulder and they climb the stairs and head for her room where she can let the tears take over.

* * *

"Who was that?" Jace slurs out, waking from his drunken slumber. A noise woke him up but he doesn't know where it came from.

"It was nobody." Alec replies and sticks something, a phone maybe, into his pocket. Someone must have called him. "You've been out for a while. It's almost three in the afternoon."

"Apparently not long enough." Jace replies and reaches around blindly for the bottle of whiskey he had before he fell asleep on the floor around ten this morning. "I don't feel drunk anymore." His head was pounding loudly and his stomach was queasy, making him feel like he was going to throw up at any minute.

"You need to eat something and drink something that isn't alcohol." Alec says in a stern voice. "Come on." Jace feels Alec's hands slide under his armpits and then he is pulling him up to his feet. Jace sways heavily and then a lurching feeling spreads through him. "Uh oh. I've seen that face before." Alec says and then he is hurrying him into the nearest bathroom which is the guest bath near the door. He makes it just in time to hurl up the contents of his stomach into the toilet. Alec runs out of the room and returns a minute later with a washcloth. He wets it in the sink and then hands it to Jace when he is sure that he isn't going to throw up any more.

Jace takes it and runs it roughly down his face, reveling in the cool wetness of it. It is incredibly refreshing. He then drags it across the back of his neck and closes his eyes as he lets his head fall back. He is going to be paying for his drinking for a while. Alec crouches down and gets eye level with Jace as he leans back on the opposite wall. "Do you think you can move to the living room?" he asks.

"Yeah." Jace answers and then Alec is helping him to his feet again. Once he is standing, Jace lets go of Alec and makes his way into the living room. Once he rounds the corner, he is surprised to see that the room is mostly put back together. The couches he flipped over in a bout of anger are put back where they belong and all the pieces of the things he broke are swept up and gone. "Did you clean?"

"I cleaned while you were passed out." Alec replies, walking past him and turning to go into the kitchen. Jace continues into the room and falls onto one of the couches. With his head still spinning, he falls over and pulls one of the pillows under his head. He closes his eyes, trying to escape the light pouring in from the large windows in the room and takes a deep breath. The smell of Clary fills his nose and his eyes fly open wide. He looks down and see that he has grabbed her favorite pillow; one that she always laid her head on. The thought of ripping it apart and throwing it across the room instantly runs through his mind but he quickly dismisses it. Instead, he pulls the pillow closer and buries his nose in it and inhales deeply. The scent of her strawberry shampoo fills his senses and it's almost like she is here with him.

He does this a few more times before Alec returns to the room with a bowl of something and a bottle of water. "I fixed you some chicken noodle soup." he tells him as he sets the food down on a chair that was taken from his dining table and placed in front of him to use as a table. "I don't want you to try and eat anything too heavy before your hangover passes."

Jace reluctantly lets go of the pillow and pushes himself up into a sitting position. He grabs the spoon and takes a bite of the burning hot soup before cracking open the bottle of water and downing half of it. "What am I going to do?" Jace suddenly asks after a moment of silence. "I don't know what to do." He looks to his left where Alec sat down and he purses his lips at Jace. "You wouldn't like to hear what my opinion on what to do is." Alec says flatly.

"Just tell me." Jace says tiredly.

Alec seems to contemplate telling him for a minute before deciding to do so. "Honestly, I think that you would look weak if you didn't retaliate somehow."

"Retaliate?" Jace says with surprise. "What do you mean by retaliate?"

"Strike back. Kill one of the Morgensterns. An eye for an eye."

" _No_." Jace says firmly.

"And why not? " Alec asks with a slightly angry and annoyed tone.

"Because..." Jace pauses for a moment as he thinks about why. He's gotten to know them. All of them. Jocelyn is so sweet and caring and Valentine, while he portrays this unflinching and unforgiving person to the rest of the world, he is really a big softy when it comes to those he loves. Jonathan has easily become one of his friends. Him and Clary went on countless double dates with him and Izzy and he seems to make Izzy so happy. And then there is Clary. "Because..."

"Because you have gotten too involved with them." Alec finishes for him. "You grew to care about them."

"So did your sister." Jace retorts, his eyes narrowing slightly. Alec's face grows tight as his lips turn into thin lines on his face. "Yes. She did. She always did have horrendous taste in men."

"And where is she now?" Jace asks, already knowing the answer. Izzy wouldn't give Jonathan up to save her life. She is completely, head over heels in love with him.

"She's over _there_." Alec says bitterly. "I've tried to tell her to come home but she told me to 'fuck off'. Then she started spouting some crazy shit about..." He stops mid sentence, his face growing worried like he's said too much.

"What did she say?" Jace asks sternly while trying to ignore the pounding in his head.

"Nothing." Alec answers and Jace looks harder at him; waiting for him to tell him. He won't give in. He will know what she said. "Like I said, she said some crazy shit. She said that there is no way Clary did it, even though every single piece of evidence points to that."

Jace looks away from his friend and down to his food. He takes a deep breath and Alec continues. "We had the cigars and the box they came in dusted for prints. The only ones that came back were yours and Clary's and your father's."

"That can't be." Jace says after a silent pause. "I can't believe that."

"Well, believe it." his friend says with finality. "When are you going to see that she was just using you? That she played you?"

Jace flinches away from Alec's words. They cut him to the bone with their iciness. "I love her and she loves me. I know that without a doubt." Jace says looking back up and locking eyes with his friend.

"Then why did she do what she did?" Alec asks snidely. "If she really loved you, then why did she kill your father?"

"But none of it makes sense." Jace says with vigor. "There are so many ways to kill someone without a trace. Why then, did she do it in a way that would easily lead directly back to her? If it was her intention to slowly dismantle my father's work and take over, then why give away her motives so early on by killing my father in a way that would point directly at her? Someone who was raised by Valentine Morgenstern shouldn't be so sloppy."

Alec seems bothered by Jace's assumption, pursing his lips at him looking upset. "Why do you keep defending her?" he asks brusquely. "She probably just assumed that it would look like a heart attack and you would accept that and not do an autopsy. She was probably eager to get the ball rolling on her and her father's plans and got a little sloppy."

"But the Morgensterns don't get sloppy." Jace says. "You can't afford to be sloppy in our line of work. That's how you go to jail. It was hammered into me to be careful and how to not get caught just like I am sure that it was hammered into Clary."

"My _GOD_ , Jace!" Alec shouts angrily. "Do you hear yourself?! You sound absolutely crazy and desperate. Why can't you just accept the fact that she killed your father? There isn't one shred of evidence that says otherwise. When are you going to realize that? You are defending the person who murdered your father."

Jace goes quiet and looks away from his friend and down to his food with a grimace. He dips the spoon in and out of the soup as he thinks about everything. Sure all of the evidence points to her but that is what makes him question it. It's too perfect. Or maybe he just wants it not to be her so much that he is making excuses like Alec said. He drops his spoon in the bowl and leans back heavily onto the couch. All he wants to do right now is drink some more.

Alec's phone ringing breaks the silence in the room. He quickly answers it. "Hello Michael." Alec says, holding his phone up to his ear. "Yes. I'm with him. He threw his phone across the room and its shattered. That's why you haven't been able to get a hold of him. It goes directly to voicemail." There is a quiet pause for a moment and then Alec is leaning over and trying to hand the phone to Jace.

"I don't want to talk to him." Jace says quickly.

"He says he needs to know what to do..." Alec starts to say but is quickly cut off.

"I don't care. He can take care of things for a few days. He's a big boy." he says and then sits up and grabs the spoon and shovels some of the soup in his mouth. It's too hot and burns his tongue but he doesn't care. The physical pain can serve as a distraction from the pain he is feeling on the inside. "Did you hear that?" Alec asks into the phone. There are then a few mumbled noises of understanding and then Alec hangs up the phone.

There is a couple minutes of silence between the two of them before Jace breaks it. "I still want to investigate it. I want to be completely convinced of it myself, with my own eyes." He looks over to Alec who looks a little exasperated. "You can understand that, right? After all, you are a lawyer."

Alec huffs out a long breath before leaning back heavily onto the couch, giving in. "Yes. I think we can do that." he says and then gestures for Jace to keep eating.

* * *

 _OMG! I have over two hundred reviews! Seriously, y'all are absolutely THE BEST! That totally made my week!_

 _Sorry if this chapter wasn't exciting. It was a necessary chapter though and was needed for the plot. Now that we know it wasn't Sebastian (cue devastating dramatic music), who do you think it was?_

 _Also, if you are looking for a good read, check out AlesiaJ89 's stories. I beta for her cause her stories always have me captivated in the first chapter. She's awesome._

 _As always, thanks a billion for reading and don't forget to review!_


	21. Chapter 21

_The next day..._

The smell from the kitchen was wonderful. Clary slowly descended the stairs towards the delicious smell. Her head was pounding from the intermittent crying she did all night so her steps were soft and barely audible. As she got to the foot of the stairs and turned right towards the kitchen, she could hear a conversation between her mother and father as she got closer.

"...never go back." her mother's soft voice said, finishing some sentence that Clary didn't hear the beginning of. She walked closer and leaned against the wall just on the other side of the kitchen.

"I know. But I don't think she does." Valentine says somberly. "Even if all of this gets worked out, which isn't looking too promising, then there will be trust issues to work through with them. Big ones."

"I just hate seeing her like this." her mother's voice says as it moves around the kitchen. "I always worried about something like this happening. It was always going to be too easy to turn our families against one another. The tinder was always there between our families. All it needed was for someone to strike a match for it to turn into an inferno."

"And that's exactly what happened." her father's voice says gruffly. "This was my concern from the beginning. If things went south, Clary would be the one to pay the worst price. I wish I could fix it but as of right now, I have no idea how to. There is absolutely no way to figure out who poisoned them without Herondale's help. He would know better than anyone who would have the most to gain from his father's death and our war. I feel like I have to keep trying to figure it out though, even if it is pointless, for Clary's sake. She won't give up till she finds out."

"That's why we have to keep a close watch on her." Jocelyn says. "I don't want her to try to go and see him or anything like that. She's still convinced that he would believe her. If that were true, then he would have called her by now or at least accepted one of our calls. Honestly, Val, I don't think she realizes that it's over yet. I think she thinks that there is still a good chance of them getting back together even though there is no foreseeable amicable conclusion to this whole mess between our two families. It's over between them and she refuses to see it."

"Love makes us blind, Jocelyn." her father says in a sad voice and that is all Clary can take. She pushes off of the wall and instead of confronting her parents and giving them a piece of her mind, she hurries back upstairs. She walks back into her room and softly shuts her door before making her way over to Maia who is still sleeping in her bed. She stayed with her all night. "Maia. Wake up." Clary says softly. When Maia doesn't budge, Clary nudges her a little harder. "Maia. Wake up. I am going to need your help."

Maia grumbles a little and rolls from her back to her side and throws an arm over her eyes. "What?" she groans with a scratchy voice.

"I'm done feeling sorry for myself and I need to do something." Clary explains, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I can't let this just...get the best of me. I need to figure who poisoned Stephen for Jace. Hell, who know? Maybe he is doing his own investigation into the whole thing."

Maia lowers her arm from her face and eyes Clary inquisitively. "Seriously? Even after what Alec said to you yesterday on the phone?"

Clary visibly blanches when her friend brings up that conversation before shaking her head and continuing. "Yes. I always got the feeling that Alec never liked me much anyway. Like he'd always just tolerated me so I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing a happy dance right now because I am gone. I don't want to take his word for it on what Jace thinks."

Maia pushes herself up into a sitting position and rubs her eyes roughly before looking at Clary seriously. "Clary. I don't know what you think you can do."

"I can do _something_." she says exasperatedly. "I know that there is a long list of people at the party that could have done it but there is a smaller list of people who would actually have the balls to do it. That should help me narrow it down some with Father. And then if we get Izzy involved..."

"That's a bad idea." Maia cuts in.

"Why? She could help figure it out. She's known most of those people her whole life."

"And that's exactly why that would be a bad idea." Maia says sounding like she is talking to a child. "She won't be able to see things clearly. What happens when we start looking into her father or mother?"

"She would probably wouldn't like that and would probably be a hindrance to our investigation." Clary says, admitting Maia's point with a nod of her head. "Well I guess that just leaves me, then. It's all up to me."

"Well, since it's all up to you, what do you suggest is our first step?" Maia stretches out like a cat and stands up and makes her way over to Clary's bathroom.

"I think the first thing we should do is go back downstairs and pick up where we left off yesterday before the phone call." Clary stands up and follows her best friend as she pulls down her sleep shorts and starts to pee. "I think I can narrow down the list of people to only a few today. I was thinking about something Michael Wayland said and then about how one of the wives of his uptown leaders kept eyeing me all night. Like I was some sort of pest."

Maia cleans herself and stands up looking exasperated over at her friend. "And you couldn't wait to tell me that until after I peed?" she asks and Clary rolls her eyes. "I have seen so much worse from you and you know it." Clary says, eyeing her friend.

"True." Maia admits and shrugs her shoulders as she walks back over to the bed and sits down. "Now, tell me about this wife lady since I already know who Michael Wayland is."

"I think her name was Lilith." Clary says with a thoughtful look. "She was really young for the guy she was married to. His name is Raphael and he's head of the uptown district. I think he's like fifty but this chick was like twenty five or something like that. Really pretty too. Dyed blonde hair, blue eyes, big boobs. She was always really flirtatious."

"Who with?" Maia asks.

"She was definitely flirting with Jace. That's what got my attention about her in the first place. She would have been more than happy to spread her legs for him."

"And what makes you think that she might have had something to do with killing Stephen?"

"Just the way she seemed like she wanted to somehow sleep her way to the top." Clary says as she starts to pace. "Maybe if her husband got a promotion, she would be happy. She is completely the gold digger, power hungry type of hussy that were always trying to hang around Jonathan before Izzy showed up. She even started to flirt with Stephen and Michael at the same time when it was clear that Jace was only interested in me... _the slut_." Clary adds on the insult at the end, unable to help being just a little petty.

"Are you sure that you aren't just pissed because she was trying to get into Jace's pants?" Maia asks raising her brows in question. "It seems like if she wanted more money and power, she would just spread her legs and work her way up. You know, the old fashioned way."

Clary groans and runs her hands down her face. "Ugh. Maybe you're right." Clary admits. "Maybe I just didn't like the slut's hands all over my man." As soon as those words leave her mouth, her heart lurches a little. As of right now, she's not sure if he is her man or not. Everyone around her would say no but Clary can't bring herself to think that at this moment. "Anyway, I guess I should head back downstairs and talk this out with Dad. I don't know what they did after I left but it couldn't have been much."

"Alright." Maia says and slides off of Clary's bed. "But first, we have those cinnamon rolls that I can smell that your mom made."

"I know. I smelled them too." Clary says thinking about the conversation she overheard her parents having. "She always makes them for comfort when she wants to cheer one of us up after something bad happens."

"Then lets go carb load and eat the shit out of them. If we are going to figure this out then we will need all of the energy we can get." Maia grabs Clary's hand and smiles at her friend talking about cinnamon rolls being a way to carb load (Yeah. Sure) before kissing her briefly on the cheek and pulling her in for a quick hug. "Come on, Sherlock." she says and then is pulling Clary behind her and down the stairs.

* * *

"Where exactly are the cigars?" Jace asks Alec, looking at him like he didn't hear him right.

"I had Aline take them to a lab upstate." Alec says to Jace. "I didn't know you would want them."

"Of course I would." Jace says with exasperation. "I want to look at the humidor they came in and see the remaining cigars."

"And what would you do if you did have them?" Alec asks with raised eyebrows. "You are no forensics expert and would just end up looking at them."

"That's besides the point." Jace says abruptly, not liking that his friend is right. He doesn't know why he wants them but he just does. Maybe looking at them and holding them will help him come to terms with what Clary did. No. With what her family did. He can't think that she knew anything about it. It would hurt way too much.

"Listen," Alec says gently and leaning forward closer to Jace and resting his elbows on his knees, "I know you. You want to take over everything and do it yourself but you have to trust our people. Trust that they will do what you pay them to do and do it well. You know they will get the results back to you as soon as possible because of the circumstances."

The car they are in lurches to a halt and Jace looks out of the window. They are in the underground parking garage of his parent's building. Scratch that. His mother's building.

He swings the door open and steps out and walks over to the elevator doors that are being held open for him. They will take him straight to his mother's place and he will get to see her for the first time since the funeral. The doors slide shut just as Alec steps beside him and then they are riding upwards. "She's been really worried about you." Alec says quietly after looking to the other man, Max, in the elevator.

"Then get me a new phone and I would have been able to call my mom sooner. You know she doesn't take calls from unknown numbers on her personal line that only my father and I have the number to." Jace says shortly to him.

"It should be in your hands before tonight." he tells him and then looks straight ahead to the doors and waits for them to open. Once they do, Jace steps out and walks over to her door, bypassing his mother's guards standing at the door and sliding his key into the lock. "She changed the locks." the guard, Carl, says. "She said that the Morgenstern had plenty of opportunities to make a copy of your keys."

Jace fights the urge to roll his eyes and then raises his hand and knocks on the door. "Mom. It's me." he says loudly. A moment later and the doors swing open and reveal his mother who looks a little rougher than the last time he saw her. "Oh Jace." she says sympathetically and then is pulling him into her place and pulling him to her for a hug.

His arms find their way around her small frame and he closes his eyes and squeezes her tightly. The past forty eight hours have been the hardest of his life and it feels good to be held by someone he loves. It doesn't help that the arms that he really wants belong to the person who supposedly caused all of the heartache he feels in the first place. He unwillingly lets a tear slip out of his eye and wipes it away before his mother pulls back from him. She places her hands on either side of his face and her eyes turn sad as she says, "I'm so sorry darling. I can't believe what she did. I can't imagine how conflicted you must be feeling."

Jace shifts a little uncomfortably and looks over to Alec who is watching and listening to their exchange before looking back to his mother and nodding lightly. "I still want to do a complete investigation into it though." he says and Celine furrows her brows slightly in confusion.

"What is there to investigate?" she asks quietly and sounding genuinely curious.

"If it really was Clary who killed dad." he says and steps around his mother and walks into the living room.

"What?" Celine sounds surprised and taken off guard but not angry. "Who else could it have been?"

"I don't know, mom." he says as he sits down on one of the couches. "But the whole thing was just _too_ perfect. All of the evidence points directly at Clary and only at Clary. She's smarter than that. A Morgenstern wouldn't have been so sloppy. They would have covered their tracks."

"Unless they wanted to get caught and start another turf war." Alec says, jumping into the conversation and walking into the room. Celine sits down next to her son and looks up to Alec. "I think Jace is looking too hard into it and looking for any excuse that it wasn't Clary."

"That may be." Jace says with a defensive tone, cutting his eyes to Alec. "But that's only because I refuse to believe that she was with me just because she wanted to kill my father. I know what I feel and I know what she felt when she looked at me. It was written all across her face."

"I would have to agree with my son." Celine says softly. "It was very clear that the two of you were desperately in love. There is no denying that."

"But that doesn't meant that she didn't do it." Alec says sitting down across from the two Herondales. He always does this. Shifts into his lawyer mode and is a little too up front when he does. "She can love you and still kill your father. It would put her in a position of power to be the daughter of Valentine Morgenstern and the girlfriend of Jonathan Herondale. She would have incredible influence over the whole damn city. Who's to say that that wasn't part of the plan in the first place?"

"What do you think, Mom?" Jace asks, looking to his mother for some sort of guidance.

"I believe what the evidence says." she tells him looking down at her hands. "The only fingerprints that were on the cigars were yours and Clary's."

"But wouldn't that be true if someone else poisoned them and wore gloves to do it?" Jace points out. "I mean, if I were going to frame someone then I would most certainly leave no trace of myself behind."

"Come on, Jace." Alec says tiredly as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'm a lawyer. If this were presented to any court, it would undoubtedly come back with a guilty verdict for Clary. She has motive, means, and a lot to gain from your father's death."

"But that still leaves the question of why be so sloppy? She only had something to gain if I never found out about the poison and stayed by my side. Why then, would she be so sloppy and make it so obvious that it was her?" Jace has scooted to the edge of the couch and is looking pointedly at Alec. "I thought you understood why I wanted to investigate yesterday when you came over. The whole situation was just too perfect to blame Clary."

Celine takes a deep breath and Jace looks over to her. "I think I agree with Jace." she says looking to Alec. "What he says makes sense. Now that I think about it, it is too perfect. All of the evidence points directly to Clary and for her to be her father's daughter, that doesn't make sense. She would have been more careful."

"Or it does make sense because she actually did it." Alec says with a soft tone. He looks over to the two Herondales and sees their stern faces and he lets out a long breath. "Okay." he says sounding resigned. "I'll see what I can find out."

"Now I just have to figure out what to do with the ring." Jace says with a pained look. "I don't want to take it back just yet."

"You bought her a ring?" his mother asks with a soft voice and grabbing her son's hand next to her.

Jace takes a deep breath and says, "Yeah. I was going to tell you and once I got Valentine's approval, I was going to ask her to marry me."

Celine's eyes turn sad as her free hand comes up and caresses her son's face. "Oh Jace." she says softly. "I'm so sorry."

"I don't want to talk about it." he says quickly and then looks to his mother. "Where is your phone? I still don't have one."

"It's right here." she says as she pulls her phone from her back pocket.

"I need to call Aline. I want her to get to investigating as soon as possible."

"I can call her." Alec offers and Jace shakes his head.

"I'll take care of it." Jace says and scrolls down the contact list and hits Aline's number.

She answers on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey Aline. It's Jace." he says tightly to her.

"Oh, hey." she says back tentatively. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine." he says quickly while shifting uncomfortably. "I need you to do something for me."

"Anything Jace."

"I need you to tell me when and where cyanide has been sold in the city in the past two weeks. And then I want you to find out who it was sold to." Jace says with authority.

"All right." she says and it sounds like she is grabbing some paper. "Where do you want me to look first?"

"Look at the back alley kinds of deals first and then search the legal buys of cyanide."

"This might take a little while." she says back to him with an unsure tone to her voice.

"That's not acceptable. Pull whatever and whoever you need to make this happen." he says and looks up to see Alec watching him. "I want this information yesterday. Do you understand?" His tone is firm and lets her know that she needs to get this done as soon as humanly possible.

"I understand, Jace. I'll take care of it." Aline says back and he nods his head.

"Alright. I expect to hear something by tomorrow night." Jace stands up and walks to the back of the room and tucks himself into a corner where he drops his voice low so no one else can hear. "And be careful, Aline. I am worried that there could be a traitor among us if it come back that the Morgensterns aren't behind my father's death."

"You think it could have been someone else?" she asks with surprise evident in her tone.

"I'm not sure and that is why I am asking you to get this information for me. So just get it done." He looks back over his shoulder and sees his mother and Alec talking quietly as Alec's eyes glance to him with a sort of loving look like he is worried about him. "Call me when you know something." He pulls the phone away from his face and hangs up as he turns around and walks back over to his mother and his best friend. "She's going to start looking now."

"Did she say how long it was going to take to get all of the information?" Alec asks curiously.

"Not really." he answers as he runs a hand through his hair like he always does when he is stressed and sits back on the couch next to his mother and leans back. "But I put some pressure on her so I should know something soon."

Alec bobs his head up and down as he looks away and out of a large window on the back wall of the living room. "That's good." he says as he takes a deep breath and leans back in the recliner he is in.

"Just don't get your hopes up too high that it wasn't Clary." Alec says gently as he looks over to Jace after a quiet moment. "I don't want you to fall to pieces again. I hate seeing you like that."

"I'll be perfectly fine." Jace says with a slightly defensive tone as his eyes leave Alec and he looks to the wall in front of him. "I just needed to get 'that' out of my system." His voice is emphatic when he says 'that' to indicate what he means. That he is talking about destroying his penthouse and drinking till he passed out.

"I hope so." Alec says lowly and then looks back over to Jace who is still looking at the wall and gives him a tight lipped smile.

* * *

Maia and Clary eat three cinnamon rolls each before heading into Valentine's office and getting comfortable in the chairs in front of his desk. They are able to cross off about half of the people at the party in the first half of the day. They were either too stupid too pull something like this off or were too scared to. Clary, being in the mafia all of her life, has picked up a few skills that help her in this world. Most of the time, she is able to pick out who is a coward just by the way they look when talking with the head of an organization. She's seen it too many times with her father.

They have now moved on to the most likely suspects. The ones that have the most to gain from Stephen's death. The most obvious ones are Michael Wayland, George Penhallow and Robert Lightwood. Robert is the least likely of the bunch because he seemed genuinely surprised the night Stephen died and while he is heavily involved in the business, he doesn't have any real power because he is just the family lawyer. Even if Jace were out of the picture, he still wouldn't really gain anything by Stephen dying and/or expanding the Herondale territory.

Then there was Michael. He definitely had the most to gain from Stephen's death even though Jace took over. He also openly hated Clary and the relationship she had with Jace. If Jace were to die then he would be the one to take over and become the new head. That thought scared Clary to death. The thought that Michael could be behind it and Jace could possibly be in danger from him and he not have a clue about it was paralyzing to Clary. It made her want to get in a car and drive to his place and risk everything to warn him since he wouldn't take her calls.

She was also worried about Celine. He could also weasel his way into the organization by dating and marrying Celine. She wouldn't put it past him to do that because that is something that Michael told Jace that Clary was doing with him. Jace had told her about him saying over and over again that he thought she was just using him to gain power in the Herondale organization to eventually take it over for her father. There was definitely no love lost between her and Michael and that made him her number one suspect. But there was still no way to prove it. If he did do it, then he would have done a good job at covering his tracks.

"Alright." Valentine says as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "I think the first step is to find out where the cyanide that poisoned Stephen came from. If we had that piece of information, it would be easier to find out who bought it."

"So we send our people out to find out where it came from." Clary asks, looking to her father across the desk from her. Maia stepped out a little while ago because she had to go to work and Jonathan had left to go do collections for Clary so she could stay here with her father and brain storm.

"I think that is the first logical step." Valentine says as he looks back over to his daughter.

"Are you going to ask our regulars? The dealers and the black market contacts?" she asks him.

"Yes and yes." he replies.

"I also think we should look at legal sales also. Whoever it was could have bought it legally."

"That will take a little bit longer but I agree with you." His voice is thoughtful as he sits up and flips through his Rolodex and picks out a phone number of one of his informants.

"Finally. It feels good to have some sort of a plan moving along. I don't like just sitting here and have nothing happening." Clary stands up and stretches like a cat. She's been sitting for hours as her and her father brain stormed.

There is a light knock at the door and she turns around to see Sebastian poking his head in through the half opened door. "Ahh. There you are." her father says with a note of relief.

"Sorry it took so long." Sebastian says as he steps in the room and offers Clary a warm smile. She smiles back at him and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. "I had to go run the numbers a couple of times to make sure they were right." He walks by Clary and hands Valentine a small stack of papers. "The market is picking up and I think these stocks will give you the best return on your investments."

"Are these the start up companies you were telling me about?" Valentine asks as he flips through the papers.

"They are. There are also some of the big name companies in there as well. A couple of them are launching new products and the response to the testing period of those products were above a ninety percent approval."

"That's great Sebastian." Valentine coos with a half of a smile on his face as he looks at the numbers he was presented with. "You've never led me astray so far and I have made an insane amount of money following your advice." He looks back up to Sebastian with a warm smile as he hands the papers back to him. "Go ahead and pull the trigger with all of those."

"Yes sir." he responds with a warm tone and a proud look. Sebastian has always aimed to have Valentine's approval and loved when he got it. He didn't have a father growing up and that's what he saw Valentine as since him and Clary had started dating. His father of sorts.

"If the two of you have more business to discuss, I can go for a walk." Clary suggests and Sebastian turns around and says, "No. It's okay. You don't have to go. That was all the business that we have for today."

"Oh." Clary says with a smile. "But I still want to go for a walk, Dad. I have been inside for almost three days straight and am in desperate need of some fresh air."

At her words, Valentine's head snaps up to look at her. "I don't like the idea of that." he says tightly to her.

"I am just going to go for a walk in the park right there." she says with exasperation and points out of the window to the park that the manor sits against. "This is the safest place in Brooklyn as of right now because of the extra security that you have patrolling. I just want to circle around the edge of the park and I will be back within fifteen-twenty minutes."

"I still don't like the thought of you going alone. Why don't you ask Jonathan to go with you?" he father says in a disapproving voice to her.

"Because he's out doing _my job_ for me. Maia's at work, Izzy's with Jonathan and mom is in her zone painting. Not to mention Jordan will be with me." Clary's tone is tired and she levels her eyes at her father. "I just want some fresh air, Dad."

"I can go with you." Sebastian offers shyly. "That is...if that's okay with you." he adds on at the end sounding unsure.

"Yes." Valentine says quickly. "Take Sebastian with you. It would make me feel ten times better if you had someone else with you. Everyone else is doing patrols and I don't just want Jordan with you."

Clary looks to her father and then her eyes dart to Sebastian. His eyes are expectant while he waits for her answer. "Okay." she tells him and his lips turn up ever so slightly into a very soft smile.

"I'll grab your coat." he says as he walks by her and out of her father's office. She looks back to her father but he has already started to rifle through some papers on his desk and is not paying her any attention. She takes a deep breath and then turns and starts to head towards the foyer just outside of the office door. Just as she passes through the door, she sees Sebastian grabbing her coat, knowing exactly where it was and which one she preferred. A definite result of dating on and off for two years. He is so familiar with her and her family and even her home. She just hopes that this walk won't be awkward and weird. Hopefully he won't bring up the whole Jace thing. That is the last thing she wants to talk about at this moment. All she wants to do is walk and just let her mind forget everything and relax if only for a moment.

"Thanks." she says with a smile as Sebastian helps her with her coat, sliding it up her arms.

"If it weren't for the frigid wind outside, it would actually be fairly nice." he tells her with a smile in his voice.

"Ugh." she says with a sigh. "I just wish it would be spring already. I'm so tired of all the snow and ice."

"Well, be careful. The sidewalk is pretty icy."

"Did they not put salt down?" she asks and he shakes his head. "Well great." she says dryly. "I'm probably going to bust my ass."

He lets out a small chuckle as he opens the door after putting on his coat. "Don't worry. Between me and Jordan, we won't let you fall."

"Thanks." She gives him a half of an amused smile as they step out of the door and see Jordan step out of one of the cars. He pulls his phone away from his ear and hangs up as he puts his jacket on.

"Thank goodness you came out." His tone is light and somewhat playful. "I've been dying slowly of boredom for the past two days, stuck in that car or in the foyer."

Clary lets out a small amused chuckle as she slowly descends the stairs carefully. She unconsciously reaches out and grabs Sebastian's arm to steady herself as she goes and he holds his arm steady for her. "Sorry. Dad's got me on lock-down. I know how you hate to stay still. You've never been much of a homebody."

"Nope." he says popping the p. "So, where are we going?"

"I just want to get some fresh air so I am just going to walk around the park." She nods her head to the tree filled park just fifty feet away from the front sidewalk and he nods his head.

Just as Clary's foot steps off of the last step and touches the sidewalk, it slips out from under her she starts to fall. She lets out a very undistinguished "Umph!" and then big hands are wrapping around her waist and her descent towards the ground halts abruptly.

She looks down and sees familiar hands grabbing onto her while her hands grab onto his wrists. His chest is pressed against her back and she can feel his body heat rolling off of him in waves. "You see. I told you I was going to do that." Clary says with a slightly nervous chuckle as she starts to right herself. "Thanks Sebastian."

He lets out a small amused laugh and says, "No problem, Clary."

Once she is confident of her footing, she steps away from Sebastian and turns to face him. A small piece of hair has escaped his perfectly mussed look and he brings his hand up and tucks it back off of his forehead. When it falls out of place almost instantly again and he tries to tuck it back for the second time and fails, she reaches up and brushes it back and tucks it into place like she always did when they were dating. By the time she realized what she just did, his eyes are shining down at her with a look of want. "Old habits die hard, right?" she says quickly and then mentally scolds herself and drops her eyes from his nervously. Seriously? The best she could come up with was 'Old habits die hard'? She sounds like an idiot.

"I guess so." he says and then holds out his arm for her to take. Jordan, who was watching the whole exchange with questioning eyes, turns around and starts to walk ahead of them, his eyes scanning the surrounding area for any threats. This bothers her because her security walks ahead of her to give her privacy when she is on a date or something like that of the sort and walks behind her every other time. Jordan's actions then mean that he thinks that there is something going on between her and Sebastian when there isn't. She probably didn't help his assumption by tucking Sebastian's hair back with her hand which is something that only couple's do or your mother does for you when you are a kid. 'Well that's just great.' she says dryly to herself in her head as she takes Sebastian's arm to steady herself as they walk down the ice slicked sidewalk and out to the park.

Once their feet hit the slightly rough pavement of the sidewalk that borders the whole length of the park, she lets go of his arm and gives him a small smile as she tucks her hands into her coat pockets.

"Did you ever finish that landscape you were working on the last time I was here?" he suddenly asks her and looks down to her.

"No." she says somberly. "I tossed it. It started to look worse and worse every time I put the brush to the canvas."

"What?" he says with quiet outrage. "I thought it was great. Your mom was bragging on you about it when I picked up my Aunt's portrait."

"How did your Aunt like it?" she asks him with a smile as she turns her head to look up at him. There is a strong gust of wind then and her hair flies in her face, momentarily blinding her and filling her mouth full of her own hair. She chokes a little on her own hair and coughs it up. Her hand comes up as she starts to laugh and pulls all of her long hair back and spits it out of her mouth before tucking it behind her ear. Sebastian smiles and laughs back at her expression before answering. "She absolutely loved it." he tells Clary as their laughing quiets. "She hung it in her sitting room where she greets her company at her home in the city."

"That's great." she says with real happiness. "I know Mom was probably thrilled to hear that."

"She was." He looks back to in front of them and scoots close to Clary to let a jogger by. She can smell his familiar cologne waft in her face with a breeze before he steps back away from her. "In fact, she did her happy dance when I told her just how much she liked it."

"Oh my gosh." Clary groans with embarrassment as her hands come up to cover her face for a moment. When her hands fall away, there is an entertained smile on her face. "I can't believe she did the dance. I've told her to stop doing that horrible thing."

"I thought it was cute." he says with a scrunch of his nose and a large smile.

"It is _not_ cute." Clary says with finality. "She looks like a pirate with a peg leg trying to do a jive. Her hands go flying with wild abandon and she usually ends up hitting herself in her own face."

Sebastian lets out a roll of laughter and then says, "She actually did hit herself. She poked herself in the eye."

"You see!" Clary says with triumph. "I'm right. She looks ridiculous and is a danger to herself and others." She starts to laugh and then she sees one of her father's cars pull up along the edge of the park and one of the newest guards hops out. She thinks his name is Jeremy or something like that.

He makes heavy eye contact with Jordan and says, "Mr. Morgenstern sent me to give you a message." He is getting closer and she sees him reach into his jacket and she immediately gets a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"And what's that?" Jordan asks sounding slightly annoyed at the rookie's know-it-all tone of voice.

"Oh wait. It wasn't Mr. Morgenstern who wanted me to give you a message. It was actually Mr. Herondale." the guy says with a growing wicked smirk.

Everything after that seems to happen in slow motion.

The guy, Jeremy, pulls out his gun. As he is bringing it up to point at Clary, Jordan pulls out his gun, lightning quick when shots break out from the car that Jeremy had stepped out of. Jordan ducks while bringing his gun up to point it at him.

Clary stands there watching until Sebastian grabs her by her shoulders. Jeremy is now pointing his gun directly at her face and she feels her mouth fall open slightly in surprise. There is a loud pop and then there is a stinging pain in her right cheek. Before another shot can be fired, Sebastian is spinning her away from Jeremy and wrapping his arms around her and knocking her to the ground.

As they are falling, she hears a flurry of shots and Sebastian grunts as his face contorts in pain. He cages her in his arms as they hit the ground and while her body is barely jostled, her head cracks painfully against the sidewalk. He lands directly on top of her but somehow manages not to let all of his body weight crush her small frame. Her eyes close against the pain that is spreading from the back of her head and when she opens them again, there are stars swirling around her vision. When they finally clear after a few seconds while the gunshots slow to only a few here and there, she looks to her left and her nose hits Sebastian's left cheek.

He is grimacing in pain while laying on top of her, his face pulling together in tightness. Jordan calls her name and she turns to see him hurrying over to her. There is a bright red stain spreading quickly along the left sleeve of his jacket and he is covered in snow like he had rolled around in it. "Clary! Clary! Are you okay?" he shouts at her as he reaches her and falls to the ground to be at her level.

"My head." she groans and then looks back over to Sebastian. "Sebastian. Are you okay?" she asks him and he just grunts.

"Clary. He's been shot in the back." Jordan tells her gravely as he looks at his back. "It looks like two times."

"What?!" she shouts loudly and then the adrenaline hits. "Oh my God! Sebastian!" Her hands come up from under him and she grabs his shoulders and then rolls him onto his side. He winces in pain but doesn't scream as she surely would have.

"I'm having trouble breathing." he croaks out as he falls onto his back. Clary scrambles to her knees and then is hovering over him; her hands going to his face. She turns it to face her and he opens his eyes and they lock onto hers. "Oh my God, Sebastian! Why did you do that?" she asks him angrily.

"Because I love you." he says simply and her heart gives a little squeeze.

"You're so stupid." she tells him as she looks down at his body while her hands flutter over him not knowing what to do. "I never wanted you to get shot for me." As she looks down at him, guilt starts to spread wide and fast through her body. He wouldn't have gotten shot if she had just said no to him or if she had just stayed inside like her father wanted her to.

"I'll be stupid everyday if it means that you are safe." he says with a wince and then a weak cough.

Tears spring to her eyes and start to fall fast and furious down her cheeks. "I've called an ambulance." Jordan says, appearing on the other side of Sebastian. That's funny. She didn't even hear him on the phone. "Jordan! You're shot too." she notes with horror. In her foggy state of mind, she didn't realize that that was what that red stain spreading on his arm was as he ran to her.

"I'll be fine. He just got me in my arm." he says dismissively. "Are you shot?"

"I don't think so." she tells him as she wipes a tear from her face. Her hand comes away a little bloody and she brings it back up to her face. Her fingers feel along her cheek until she finds a long cut right under her eye. "I think a bullet grazed me." she says in shock.

"Your face." Jordan says looking to her. "It grazed your cheek."

She looks back down to Sebastian as one of her hands finds his and grabs onto it for dear life. His hair was messed up again and for some reason that bothered her. Her free hand rises up and pushes all of it back into place until she is satisfied and when she looks back down to his eyes, they are watching her with adoration. His eyes are starting to water and her hand slides down and cups his cheek. "You can't die on me, okay?" she says to him. "I'll never forgive myself. Not again."

"I'd do it all again." he says with a shallow breath. "All of it." His eyes slide closed and panic grips her chest. "Sebastian!" she shouts at him as she hears a few sets of loud footsteps pounding closer to her in a sprint and all she can manage to think is 'No, no, no. Not again'.

* * *

 _Sorry this update took so long. My life has been really hectic lately. I should also probably tell y'all that there most likely won't be another chapter for a while. I am going to Italy for vacation on Friday for seven days with my husband! AHHHH! I'm so excited! Needless to say, I won't be writing at all next week and will be busy packing and ironing out all of the details of my trip for the rest of the week. Sorry...but not sorry. I have wanted to go to Italy my ENTIRE life and it's finally happening!_

 _That being said, I WILL be updating Smutty One Shots for the Mind. I have a chapter almost done for that and I am excited to put it up._

 _Till next time, thanks a million for taking time from your busy day and reading my story! Y'all are the best! Don't forget to follow and review!_


	22. Chapter 22

**SORRY!** I know I dropped off for a while there but I swear I have a good reason for it. First of all, my trip to Italy was AMAZING! I absolutely loved it and saw such wonderful and beautiful things. I loved experiencing the food and culture the most though. I will be updating my profile picture with each new chapter with a picture of me in Rome so I can share my adventure with y'all.

 **Now,** for something depressing. The reason I have been MIA is because while I was in Italy, I got a call from the place where I was boarding my dog and they told me that they had come in and found him dead that morning. I have finally stopped crying randomly throughout the day and am able to talk about it now. He was perfectly healthy and was only eight and half years old (got him when he was eight weeks) and it was a complete shock for me and my family. To say that I was devastated was an understatement. I have been sad and haven't had the motivation to write because I have been grieving until the past few days which led to this chapter. Sorry if this chapter is not that great but I promise the next one will be filled with excitement to say the least.

 **As for now** , my profile picture is of me petting my sweet puppy. I wanted everyone to see his precious face as a sort of tribute to him and so that y'all will see how happy he was and how incredibly precious he was to me. I love you Tobey. July 11, 2008 - March 23, 2017

* * *

 **A year and a half ago...**

 _"Simon!" Clary shouts as her best friend appears from his brownstone. "Why didn't you tell me that you and Maia have kissed before?!"_

 _Simon rolls his eyes heavily as he swings his bag that holds his computer over his shoulder. "Because it wasn't a big deal. I was drunk and she looked hot and it was only once."_

 _She reaches him then and punches him lightly on the top of his arm. He says 'ow' and makes a show of rubbing his arm. "Jordan was the one who told me about it." she whines at him. "He said it like it was common knowledge and I just sat there with a dumb look on my face."_

 _"Why aren't you mad at Maia for not telling you?"_

 _"Oh, I am. I let her have a piece of my mind."_

 _"You, Miss. Morgenstern, can be way too dramatic." Simon says and reaches up and ruffles her hair a little. She bats away his hand with a scowling glare and then the two fall into step beside one another. "Can you believe that we've been friends for like...sixteen years?" he says to her._

 _"I know." she says seriously. "We are getting old. I'm twenty-one and you are almost twenty-two. We're practically decrepit." They both share a laugh and he throws and arm over her shoulder and pulls her into his side. "So, when are you going to leave Sebastian so we can run away together and marry each other?"_

 _She rolls her eyes nervously before replying. "Things are going great between me and Sebastian right now." She always feels a little awkward when Simon says things like that since he told her he was in love with her when they were seventeen. He swears that he doesn't feel the same way now but it will forever be the only thing that she feels uncomfortable talking to Simon about. "I don't want to jinx anything but I think that we could be in it for the long haul. He is just so hot."_

 _"Yeah. Totally." Simon says with a flick of his imaginary long girly hair. "Like...he makes me swoon."_

 _"You are so ridiculous." she tells him and ducks out from under his arm. "So, were you able to break into the dock's computers?" she asks him looking down to his bag slung over one shoulder._

 _"Of course I was." he tells her with a superior tone. "Your dad wouldn't pay me so well if I weren't able to make some containers disappear from their shipping lists."_

 _"Sometimes I wonder what you'd be doing if we never became friends and I corrupted you." she wonders with a wistful tone._

 _"My life would be so unbelievably boring. I'd probably be sitting in my room at my mom's house reading comic books and playing World of Warcraft with my cyber girlfriend."_

 _"True story." she says and they both share a warm laugh. They then lapse into a comfortable silence as they walk the few blocks to Maia and Jordan's house. Everyone is meeting there to hang out and play Cards Against Humanity. Even Jonathan and Kaelie are detaching themselves from one another long enough to make a public appearance. She glances behind her and sees the guard she absolutely hates trailing them about ten-fifteen feet behind her. "Ugh. I hate that guy. He gives me the creeps. I always feel like he is staring at my ass."_

 _"I feel the same way." Simon agrees. "Although...my ass is fantastic. I don't really blame him for wanting to stare at it."_

 _Clary throws her head back and lets out a huge laugh. Her eyes are shut tight so she doesn't see the person pop up from in between two cars holding a gun. Her laughing is cut off by Simon grabbing her arm roughly and pulling her behind him. Her eyes fly open and she sees Simon grab a hold of the hand that the gun is in and try to take it from him. She quickly recognizes him as the guy whose business her father just 'bought' out from under him after he got too far behind on payments. He was extremely pissed off and disappeared. She thought that he had fled town or something like that but obviously, she was wrong. He looked angry and possessed and clearly wanted revenge. The way his eyes would dart to her in pure disgust every split second let her know that he was here to kill a Morgenstern._

 _She was too in shock in the first moment that he shoved her but she was starting to come around. Fear gripped her heart as she took a step towards the two men after seeing that Simon wasn't faring too well. Just as she reached them and pulled back her arm to punch the man, she heard a gunshot from the gun in his hand. The loud pop made her jump but she still managed to snap her arm forward and punch the man before her shitty bodyguard reached them and pulled out his gun and shot him. "Can you believe that guy?!" she says loudly to Simon in surprise._

 _When he doesn't reply, she looks up to him and sees him standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face. "What's the matter, Simon?" she asks him. She sees his hand move from the bottom of her line of sight and looks down to the movement. The second her eyes see his blood-soaked hand moving away from his abdomen, her heart falls into her stomach. "Oh my God, Simon!" she says and then he falls to his knees. She isn't far behind him and grabs a hold of his shirt as he sways heavily and falls to the ground on his back. "He's been shot!" she shouts to her guard who is somewhere behind her. "Call an ambulance!"_

 _Simon's face was now as white as a sheet and she reaches down and covers his wound with her hand and presses down hard to try and stop the gushing of blood pouring from him. "Everything is going to be fine." she tells him knowing that it is a lie. She sees where he's been shot and knows that there are vital organs that have probably been hit. He's going to bleed out before help gets here. When she looks back up to his face, the tears start to fall freely from her eyes. "Why did you do that?" she asks him angrily._

 _"Because I love you." he manages to choke out. "He was going to kill you."_

 _"You're so stupid, Simon." she tells him and pushes harder on his bullet wound to try and slow the blood loss. Instead, it seems like she forces more blood from him as her hands become completely soaked with the warm and red substance. "I can take care of myself."_

 _"I know." he says weakly and then gives her a tiny smile. "But you're my best friend. I had to try and stop him. I'm the man. I'm supposed to protect you. After all, you're the size of a twelve year old." He then lets out a sad and tiny laugh and she smiles back at him._

 _"I am not. I'm at least the size of a sixteen year old now."_

 _"If you say so." he says and then his eyes glaze over. His jaw falls slack and a long breath of air leaves his lips. "Simon!" she shouts loudly, removing her hands from his wound. "Simon!" Her hand flies to his pulse point on his neck to check for his heartbeat and finds nothing. Not even a tiny flutter. "No, no, no, no, no." Clary chants as her heart begins to clench hard in her chest. Her hands go to his chest and she starts to press over his heart and perform CPR. Deep down, she knows that it is useless seeing the unbelievably large pool of blood around them and knowing that no one can survive that amount of blood loss. Still, that doesn't stop her from at least trying._

 _After twenty compresses, she bends down and blows into his mouth, refusing to look into his lifeless eyes that are hanging half way open with their pupils blown wide. "NO!" she yells again and then she feels arms grab her under her armpits and lift her off Simon and begin to drag her away just as she sees stars and passes out from shock._

Clary is pulled from the memory of Simon's death when she hears Jordan say that Sebastian still has a heartbeat. She shakes off the terrible memory and hears sirens in the distance getting louder and louder. "It sounds like he is having trouble breathing." Jordan says and Clary moves into action.

She leans down and puts her ear to his nose and hears a strong wheezing noise and quickly assumes that one of the bullets has probably pierced one of his lungs. She then turns her face towards him and lifts his neck and plugs his nose. Clary brings down her lips onto his and blows a large breath of air into his mouth and watches out of the corner of her eyes as his chest rises and falls with the breath she just gave him. "It's hard to push air in his lungs." she says when she sits up.

"The ambulance sounds close." Jordan remarks and then pulls out his walkie-talkie and starts to tell her father's men on the closed channel that they use what just happened. She leans down and blows another breath into his mouth and continues this until the paramedics arrive and push her aside.

She sits back and hears Jordan tell them that someone tried to rob Clary and Sebastian and then Sebastian turned around to protect her when the guy shot him. It's essentially the same story that she told the police about Simon's murder. In fact, everything about this whole thing just feels too familiar to her. She doesn't want the people she loves getting hurt or dying for her.

She watches numbly as they cut off his clothes and roll him on his side to get a look at the bullet wounds. There are no exit wounds on his front which means that the bullets are still inside of him. Whether this a good or a bad thing, she has no idea.

"Are either one of you his family?" a deep voice asks. She looks up to see one of the paramedics strapping Sebastian to the gurney and start rolling him towards the ambulance.

"No." Jordan answers quickly.

"Then the both of you will have to follow behind. He's fairly stable right now but we need to get him to the hospital right now." the paramedic says again and her heart drops. He shouldn't be alone right now. The only family that he has is his aunt after his parents died when he was young. The thought of him being alone right now...

"I'm his fiancé." Clary blurts out. "Does that count as family?"

The other paramedic answers. "Close enough but I'm going to need you to stay out of the way and stay by his head."

"That's fine." she answers and hurries along with them.

"Clary!" she hears Jordan shout with worry and slight anger. He's supposed to be protecting her but he can't exactly do that if she is in an ambulance with Sebastian. Not to mention the fact that her father will be furious that she didn't return to the mansion right away after someone tried to kill her but she doesn't care in this moment. Sebastian took two bullets for her and she'd have to be dragged kicking and screaming from him before she let him be alone right now. "Just follow us."

"I will... but your _father_." he says between clenched teeth.

"I know but I don't care. I can't leave him right now." Her voice is pleading and firm and Jordan purses his lips tightly before giving her a curt nod of understanding. She hops up in the ambulance and sits where they told her to, right at the top of his head, and once the doors are shut and they are on the move, her hands find their way to either side of his face. She looks down at his pale unconscious face and the pink that usually flushes his lips is completely gone. He's lost a lot of blood. "Please, Sebastian. Please. You can't die." she says quietly to him with a fervent tone. Her head comes down and she rests her forehead on top of his for the rest of the ride.

* * *

Jace hops out of the car the moment it comes to a stop in front of the Herondale's business building. Alec is right behind him carrying a briefcase that was delivered to Celine's apartment. It carried with it a new phone for Jace and some of the more sensitive legal paperwork of their organization.

As they pass by the receptionist and step into the elevator, he pushes the button for the thirty-first floor. It's about time he takes his father's office and make it his. He hasn't been here since before Stephen's death but the timing just feels right. The doors to the elevator close and Jace, Alec, and Max are engulfed in silence. "Why did you want to come here suddenly?" Alec asks.

"As I was sitting with my mother talking to her, I realized that me sitting on the side lines while I worked out my personal issues isn't what my father would have wanted. He had a lot to deal with in his personal life on many occasions but he never abandoned his legacy to deal with his problems. And…. I need a distraction while I wait for what Aline finds. All I can think about is that."

"You know she said that it might take a while, right?" Alec says.

"Yes, I know. That's why I need to just dive into work right now. I can't think about 'it' anymore right now because thinking about it makes me want to drink till I pass out or hit something. Both of those options are not productive in any way and won't help me or anyone I love."

Alec studies Jace for a few silent seconds and then just nods his head in understanding just as the doors open and they all step out.

After looking to the left, where Michael Wayland's office is, it is very clear that there is something going on. There is one guy, dressed in all black, who looks like he's either dead or unconscious slumped down on the floor. About five Herondale men are all looking towards Michael's office and haven't noticed that anyone has even gotten off of the elevator. "What in the hell is going on up here?" Jace asks in his most authoritative voice.

Everyone that was in the hallway spins around on their heels and look open-mouthed at him in surprise. "Mr. Herondale." one of them, Josh, says in surprise. "We were told you wouldn't be coming in for a while."

Jace's eyes narrow into tiny slits at the group of men who are now returning to their assigned positions that they were supposed to be in. "Well it's good thing that I did. Who the hell is that?" He points to the man lying on the floor.

"He's not dead." Josh replies. "He's just knocked out. Mr. Wayland thought that it would be easier to get their stories one by one to make sure they were telling the truth so we put this one," he gestures to the unconscious man on the floor, "to sleep so he couldn't hear what the other one was saying."

"Wait a minute." Jace says walking into the hall and getting right in Josh's face. "What is going on? What men and what story are you talking about?"

Josh swallows roughly, obviously feeling very nervous about having Jace glaring at him only inches from his face. "A...about the hit that went bad."

Jace's jaw clenches tight and he grits out, " _What hit_?!"

Before the terrified man answers, a guy that Jace remembers seeing somewhere stumbles nervously out of Michael's office. The man's eyes instantly land on Jace and his face pales while his eyes widen with fear.

Jace then turns his body and walks over to the man and eyes him. "I know you from somewhere." he says thoughtfully but with skepticism lacing his every syllable. "Where do I know you from? You aren't one of mine."

The man starts to open his mouth when Michael appears at the threshold of his office door. "Jace." he says. His voice is full of surprise and he detects that there is also a bit a fear there in his words as well. "You said you wouldn't be in for a while. That I should take care of things."

"I did say that." Jace says, knocking the man he was just talking to in his shoulder with his as he passed him and made his way towards Michael. "But now I'm glad that I came in when I did. There is obviously something going on that I don't know about." Jace has rid himself of the melancholy mood that he was just in and all thoughts of his personal life are shoved to the back of his mind. Whatever was going on here clearly needed his full attention. "Would you care to tell me what that is?" he asks in a challenging tone as he looks at his godfather. It is clear that whatever it is, he doesn't want to tell him.

"I think it's best that we talk in my office." Michael says and looks pointedly at a few of the men in the hallway. Jace looks back at Max and he starts to walk towards the men. Michael looks questioningly at Max following them into the office and is about to say something about it when Jace shoots him a look that says 'don't say a damn word' and he purses his lips and shuts the door behind the three men.

He walks around Jace and goes to sit at his desk and pulls out bottle of scotch and pours himself a drink before looking back up to Jace. "You can take a seat, Jace." he says and motions to one of the chairs on the other side of his desk.

"I prefer to stand right now. And I'm no longer Jace to you in professional matters." he replies coolly and Michael nods in understanding. Jace can tell that whatever he is about to tell him, he probably won't like it by the way Michael is acting.

"I was hoping to have this taken care of by the time you returned to work." Michael says lowly and brings his glass to his lips and takes a small sip of his scotch.

"Have what taken care of?" Jace replies with all civility gone from his voice. He's angry now. Something big has happened and he had no clue. "You had better stop dancing around the subject and tell me now. My patience is wearing very thin."

Michael takes a deep breath and sits up in his chair as one hand spin the glass in his hand in circles. "Since I spoke with Alexander and heard you say that I should handle business for the time being, I thought about what your father would do with the situation we have currently found ourselves in."

"And what situation is that?"

"The one where the Morgensterns have initiated another war and have taken one of our own." he replies. His voice is cool and calm, almost to the point where Jace begins to think that it's faked. "If your father were here, he would have ordered some sort of retaliation. An answer to the attack we received."

Jace's fists tighten at his side. "Get to the fucking point."

Michael locks eyes with Jace. "Since Clarissa is the one who killed your father, it seemed only fair that she be the one to pay for it. An eye for an eye. So, I ordered a hit on her. We already had men placed inside the Morgenstern ranks and I sent word to them of what to do."

Jace's heart drops into his stomach. What he was expecting, he had no idea, but it certainly wasn't that. Clary. He couldn't imagine her being dead. Even after everything, the thought of her dying was unbearable.

Anger starts to flow fast and furious through his body. His face turns red and every muscle in his body tenses tightly. " _What did you just say_?" he says deathly low through his clenched jaw.

"I know that you are still in love with the girl but she is poison." Michael says trying to defend himself and his decision. "She killed your father and she deserves to die for what she's done."

"Is she?" he asks tightly. His heart stills in his chest for a moment, waiting to hear if she is still alive. "Is she dead?"

"No. A man that was with her shielded her from the bullets meant for her."

That is when Jace's control breaks. Before he can even blink, he is in front of Michael and is pulling his arm back to punch him. His fist comes flying forward and when it connects with Michael's face, he hears a satisfying crunch as his nose breaks. He reaches down and grabs Michael by his shirt front and pulls him out of his chair. The man lands on his knees in front of Jace and he snaps his fist forward again, hitting him in the eye this time. Michael brings his hands up to protect his face but other than that, he doesn't say a word. He doesn't even try to fight back. He knows his place and understands that he has to take this punishment of his insolence, however it may come.

Jace grunts in effort as he punches Michael repeatedly in his face. There is a long cut on his right brow and his bottom lip and nose are bleeding as well after a minute or two. The skin over one of Jace's knuckles breaks open when he lands a blow to his right eye and he grunts with frustration. He can't believe that he ordered a hit on Clary. That he went behind his back and tried to have her killed. The anger that is flowing through him right now is all consuming. It washes away everything else and he forgets everything except wanting to kick the shit out of the man in front of him.

Once Michael's face is drenched in his own blood and he is barely conscious, he lets go of his shirt and he falls to the floor. Jace then pulls back his foot and lets it fly forward, kicking him square in the gut. The big 'oompff' sound that comes from him urges him to do it again. He wants him to feel the pain that he feels. He swings his foot into his stomach two more times before kicking him in the face, knocking him out.

Jace's heavy breathing is now the only sound that fills the room as he stares down at Michael Wayland. "Who the hell does he think he is?" he says angrily. He looks up and back to Max who looks somewhat shocked and somewhat impressed at the same time. "He'd better be glad she isn't dead. I wouldn't have let him off so easily like I did this time." He looks back down at his pressed white button up shirt and the gray slacks and sees splatters of Michael's blood covering most of the fabric. He can vaguely feel wetness on his face and assumes that there is blood splattered there as well.

Jace turns and walks over to the office door and swings it open. Alec, along with three of his guards, are hovered around it. All of their eyes widen when they take in his blood covered body and clothes. "Are you okay?" Alec asks in a very worried voice.

"I'm fine. Although I can't say the same for Mr. Wayland." he says. He then pushes past the group of men and his eyes scan his surroundings before he finds who he is looking for. The man that was unconscious on the floor is starting to stir and the man that looked familiar from when he first got here is standing right beside the man on the floor. One of his guards walks just behind him as he makes a b-line over to the two men. "I remember you now." Jace says to the fully conscious one. His eyes narrow with anger as he says, "You are one of Valentine's men. Was it you who tried to kill Clary?"

The man swallows roughly and opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out. That is all the confirmation he needs. So quick that the man barely sees, Jace reaches over and takes his guard's gun from it's holster and cocks it back. He brings the gun up with an angry glint to his eyes and shoot the man in the head without blinking. He falls to the floor with a dull sounding thud and then he lowers the gun and points it at the man on the ground. The man looks up at him with scared eyes before his finger squeezes the trigger a second time and shoots him as well in his head.

He looks at them for a moment, watching their blood leak onto the marble floor, and then hands his guard's gun back to him. "Make sure Wayland doesn't die. Other than that, don't offer him any help. Do you understand?" he tells him.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Herondale." he says firmly and then turns and heads into Michael's office. "Alec, I need you to find out what else Michael has done in the past few days. You are the only person I trust to do that. It seems like I need to clean house around here." As he says that, he makes a point of looking around himself, his eyes landing on everyone in his sight. "I'm going to my office." Jace then turns and heads to what was formerly his father's office and is now his. Once there, he steps in and as he is shutting the door, a hand stops it. He is about to shout angrily when Alec sticks his head inside.

"Jace." he says in a soft tone. "Are you okay? What's going on?" He steps into the room and shuts the door behind him.

"Wayland ordered a hit on Clary." he says curtly and Alec's brows shoot up.

"I figured as much from what you asked that guy out there before you killed him."

"He said that she didn't get shot. Said that some guy got in the way." Jace's mind instantly flies to Jordan. Was it him who put himself in front of Clary? He didn't like the thought of him dying either. He actually likes the guy and considered him a friend before all of this. "I want to know who was shot and make sure that Clary is okay."

Alec looks like he wants to say something but just solemnly nods his head instead. "Just...tell me that you're okay." Alec says softly. His eyes betray just how worried he is.

"I'm fine." Jace says tightly, averting his eyes from his even though he is far from being fine. "Just do what I said. I need to know everything that has gone on."

"Okay. I'll just be in Michael's office. Let me know if you need anything." Alec turns and heads for the door knowing that even though he sees how upset Jace is, there is no use in trying to get him to talk about it right now. Jace needs time to cool down and then he will be more willing to talk about everything.

Once the door shuts behind Alec, Jace unbuttons his shirt and takes it off followed by his pants that are marked with dark drops of blood. He then makes his way over to the adjoined bathroom and strips the rest of the way and takes a quick shower, riding himself of Michael's blood. When he steps out of the shower, he opens his father's closet and the smell of him on his clothes smacks him in the face. A sudden wave of sadness washes over him. He's never missed his father more than he does right now. Deep down, he knows that what Michael Wayland said was right about his dad. He would have gotten even. But he refuses to acknowledge that and instead, pulls a shirt and a pair of pants out of the closet.

The shirt fits but the pants are a little big around the waist. It's nothing that a belt won't fix though. It feels weird to be wearing his father's clothes but he can't exactly walk back out on the street with his clothes covered in blood.

Jace makes his way over to the large desk at the back of the office and plops down into the large leather chair seated behind it. His head falls back and his eyes fall closed as he finally lets himself think about the ramifications of Michael's actions.

First and foremost is Clary. He can't believe that 'his' men almost killed the woman he loves under the pretense he ordered it to be done. He suddenly wonders what she is thinking right now. If she believes that he wants her dead.

The thought that she would believe that twists his stomach into knots. No matter what she's done, the thought of her not living and breathing is devastating. As selfish as it is, he's glad that some guy, whoever it was, put himself in front of Clary and protected her. All that matters is that she is okay. He may look weak for not wanting the person who supposedly killed his father to die but that doesn't matter right now. He can't think straight because he is too worried about her.

He opens his eyes and leans forward and picks up the phone on the desk and hits the extension for Wayland's office. Alec picks up on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Alec. What hospital is Clary at and who was shot?" he asks worriedly, unable to calm the anxiety in his tone.

"From what I've been able to find out, it was her ex, Sebastian Verlac, who was shot. Apparently, they had gone on a walk together and that's when it happened."

A thrill of jealousy runs through him when he hears that she was with her ex. Are they back together? No. She can't have moved on that fast. Unless...she really _was_ pretending with him the whole time. No. She couldn't have been. "Is he dead?" he asks.

"Not that I know." Alec answers. "He was taken to the hospital by ambulance and her guard, I don't know which one, was shot in the arm. Clary went in the ambulance with her ex and they think she is still at the hospital with him. I'm not sure but someone said that she was bleeding from her face."

"What?!" Jace shouts into the phone. "She was bleeding from her face?!"

"That's all I know." Alec says hurriedly, trying to keep Jace from berating him with more questions. "The only ones who could answer more questions about it are the ones you killed in the hallway."

"This is a fucking nightmare." Jace says. His tone is that of a tired man. "We need to get someone of ours in that hospital to find out what is going on. Valentine is going to be beyond angry and he will surely be there with Clary soon if he isn't already there. I also want to know what exactly happened to her."

"Jace..." Alec says unsurely. "You can't keep this up. I know the whole Clary situation is complicated right now for you but this is how our line of work operates. You cross this family and you die."

"Yes, I know. But I am still not completely convinced that it was her and that is all that matters. I don't care what you or anyone else thinks. I will have all of the information before I move forward with any plans with the Morgensterns. And now, thanks to Michael, we have to worry about what Valentine will do to retaliate. There is no way he will let this go. According to him, I tried to kill his daughter. The man that supposedly loves his daughter and wants to marry her just tried to kill her. He will think I am a monster."

"But Jace..." Alec starts to say but Jace cuts him off. "Just find out what is going on in that hospital." Before another word is said, he hangs up the phone and then throws it across the room where it hits a wall and falls to the ground into pieces. As soon as the rattling pieces stop moving and the office goes quiet again, his new cell phone rings loudly. He hurries over to his pants that are discarded on the floor and picks them up before fishing his phone from the front pocket. His heart almost stops when he sees Aline's number on the screen.

He hurriedly swipes his finger across the screen and brings the phone up to his ear. "Aline? You already have information?"

"I do." she answers with a serious tone to her voice. "One of our informants came forward when he found out you were looking for where the cyanide came from. He was scared shitless and sang like a canary when your men showed up. But before I say another word, I need you to get somewhere where you are completely alone. And I mean absolutely _no one_ anywhere near you. You might also want to sit down."

* * *

"Clary?" a feminine voice calls from behind her. She spins around to see Sebastian's Aunt Elodie hurrying into the waiting room with a very worried look on her face.

"Aunt Elodie." Clary says with some relief. The two women share a brief hug before Clary is attacked with questions. "What happened? Where is he? Is he okay?"

"Listen..." Clary says and looks around quickly to make sure that the nurses around them can't hear her, "I told them I was his fiancé so they would let me ride with him in the ambulance and tell me what is going on. They took him straight to surgery when we got here. He has a collapsed lung from one bullet and the other tore through his spleen and part of his liver. They are taking out his spleen and the damaged part of his liver and repairing the hole in his lung. The doctor said that while he is in serious condition, he feels that he will be able to recover from this. All of his injuries, while they are very serious, are repairable with a quick response and surgery."

"Then where is he?" she asks.

"He's still in surgery. I made sure he had the best surgeon at this hospital. He hasn't been in for more than thirty minutes. I called you as soon as I could."

"I know you did sweetie." Aunt Elodie says and pulls Clary in for another hug as a single tear escapes her face. When she pulls back, she leans in close to Clary. "What did you tell them happened?"

"Jordan told them that two guys tried to rob us. He was shot in the arm but he is doing fine."

"And what about you?" Her hand comes up and brushes under the cut along her cheekbone.

"I'm absolutely fine thanks to Sebastian. A bullet grazed me. The nurses sealed it up with liquid stitches." Clary's face then changes. Her eyes turn sad and she lets Elodie see the guilt that is racking her brain. "I don't know why he did that." she says in a small voice. "Why he put me behind him. I didn't want him to do that. I didn't want him to get hurt because of me."

"Oh sweetie." his Aunt Elodie says in a somber voice. "It's because he's still in love with you. He would rather die than see a hair on that pretty head of yours harmed."

"But...I broke his heart. How could he still love me?" she wonders out loud. "I don't deserve that. He deserves better."

"No, Clary." The older French woman says to her. "He has only ever wanted you and he made the decision to stand in harm's way for you. You shouldn't feel guilty about that. He wouldn't want you to ever feel that way for something he did."

"But I do." she replies. "The whole thing is too reminiscent of Simon. I'm so tired of people I love and care for getting hurt and dying for me. I've never asked for it. I can take care of myself. I won't be able to take it if he... if he dies." Clary then breaks down into small sobs as Elodie wraps her arms around her.

Clary's missed her. Sebastian's Aunt Elodie was always so loving and accepting of her. She didn't realize she missed her until now. It feels good for Clary to be in her arms. Her and Sebastian were together when Simon was killed and him and his aunt saw what she went through with her guilt from that. She completely shut down. She broke up with Sebastian and ran away from her life with Maia in tow. They went on a road trip across the country for two months as she tried to escape her guilt. Too bad that you can't exactly escape something like grief and guilt. You can put it off for a while but it always comes back.

After a while, her crying stills and she scrubs her hands across her eyes to wipe away the last of the tears and pulls away from Aunt Elodie. The two women move in silence to the chairs in the waiting room and hold hands in the quiet around them in solidarity. Valentine shows up sometime after that. She expects him to hurry over to her to see if she is okay and then erupt in anger and scream about how the Herondales will 'pay for this' but instead, he completely surprises her. He walks calmly over to her and takes the seat on the other side of her and just sits in companionable silence after asking her softly if she was okay. She nodded her head and then they just waited.

For just a brief moment, Clary remembered what that man said before he shot Sebastian. He said that he was sent by Mr. Herondale. Her heart squeezes painfully hard at the thought that Jace wants her dead before she completely shoves those thoughts and emotions aside; willing herself to focus on Sebastian for the moment.

It was at least five hours before the doctor came back out. He looked tired and reminded her of the look her father got when he was about to deliver bad news. "How is he?" Aunt Elodie asks him. "I'm his aunt."

"Then you are his next of kin?" the doctor asks.

"Yes. How is he?" she asks more persistently this time.

"He is stable for now." he replies, pulling the cap he had on his head from the surgery off and tucking it in his pocket. "The next few hours will be crucial. We were able to repair the damage caused by the bullets but he is still in critical condition. We had to take out a part of his lung and it will be weak for a few weeks while it recovers from the trauma. His spleen was removed as well as about twenty percent of his liver. We will be watching him very closely for the next day or so to see how his body reacts to everything it has just been through. He's still asleep but two of you can go back and sit with him for a while while his room is readied." He then looks between Clary, Aunt Elodie, and Valentine, waiting to know which ones were going to go back to see Sebastian.

"We will go." Aunt Elodie says, grabbing Clary's hand.

"Are you sure?" Clary asks her questioningly. "I know I'm not family and..."

"Hush." she responds. "You are the woman he loves. He wants you back there with him. Don't argue with me." She levels her eyes at Clary, giving her no room for argument.

"Then follow me." the doctor says and turns to go back into the recovery room with the two woman trailing closely behind him.

* * *

 _As always, thanks a billion for reading and don't forget to follow and review to tell me what you think!_


	23. Chapter 23

Hours pass, one after the other, while Clary and Elodie wait for Sebastian to wake up. Some nurses came in and took him to his hospital suite that Valentine was paying for about two hours after he got out of surgery. The two women followed him to his room and sometime after two in the morning, they pulled out the bed tucked into the couch in the room and they both fell asleep there. The next time Clary opened her eyes, the room was a little brighter. The curtains were pulled almost completely shut, only allowing just a sliver of bright light through while a nurse checked his vitals.

"How is he?" Clary asks quietly as she sits up in the bed, taking care not to wake Aunt Elodie.

"He's stable. He still hasn't woken up but that is fairly normal for the kind of injuries and extensive surgery he had. His vitals are strong and steady and that is a really good sign."

"When is the doctor coming by?" she asks, rubbing her eyes.

"He usually makes his rounds after lunch so...in about two hours maybe?" she answers while looking down at her watch.

"Thanks so much." Clary tells her as she turns and leaves the room. She reaches down into her purse and pulls out her new phone that her father gave her sometime last night and checks the time. It's eleven-fifteen in the morning. She sees that she has about a million missed calls and texts and messages but she really doesn't want to deal with any of that right now. After a big stretch, she tucks her phone into the back pocket of her jeans and stands up and looks over at Sebastian.

The color is back in his lips and cheeks and the top half of him is uncovered to show the multiple bandages that now cover his torso. A knot forms in her stomach as she remembers that it is her fault that he is here in the first place. Her brows furrow as she takes a few steps towards him, coming to stop right beside his head. She notices that his hair that is always perfectly pushed back is disheveled and before she knows what she is doing, her hand comes up and she runs her fingers through his hair, trying to push it back into place. It takes a few more swipes before she deems it acceptable and then she is pulling her hand back down to her side.

"I always loved when you did that." a very scruffy deep voice says.

She jumps just a little and looks down to see Sebastian's eyes starting to crack open. "Oh my gosh. Sebastian?" she says in quiet surprise.

"Hey." he says weekly and smiles a very tired looking smile.

"You're talking." she says with a growing smile. It feels like a fifty ton weight was just lifted off of her chest and shoulders. "Oh thank God you're okay. I was so damn worried about you. You have no idea." Her eyes lock with his that are barely able to stay open while his hand starts to move. She reaches down and grabs a hold of it, and brings it back to rest by his side. "Is there something that you want?" she asks him, glancing down at their linked hands, thinking he was going to ask for something.

"Nope. I got it." he says with a small crooked smile and gives her hand a small squeeze. She rolls her eyes lightly in response and can't help the tiny amused smile that pulls up the corners of her mouth. "You're incorrigible." she says back to him and he smiles up at her. "How are you feeling?"

Sebastian's smile falters considerably then and he shifts slightly to the left. "I'm hurting pretty bad. What exactly happened? I remember going for a walk and then feeling a stiff pain in my back. I was shot?"

Clary's smile completely falls away from her face and her green eyes fall to the floor for a moment before looking back up to him with a serious look to her face. "Apparently, Jace ordered a hit on me. You stepped in the way of the bullets meant for me and were shot twice in the back. Your lung collapsed and they had to take twenty percent of your liver and your spleen out. The doctor said that he was very optimistic that you would make a full recovery and be back to normal in no time." She tries to give him a reassuring smile but her heart just isn't in it. She's successfully avoided thinking about Jace and the fact that he now wants her dead until now. Never in a million years did she think Jace would ever hurt her, much less send someone to kill her. The pain that this thought brings with it is swift and sharp and she is barely able to breathe through the squeezing in her chest.

Her shoulders slump and she curls in on herself as tears start to fall from her eyes in a quiet torrent. She is still aware that Aunt Elodie is still asleep and for some reason unknown to her, the last thing she wants to do is wake her up. Her head falls forward as she tries to keep quiet and she feels Sebastian's hand leave hers. "Hey, hey, hey." he says very softly. His hand now moves up and tucks some of her hair behind one of her ears. His thumb then ghosts across her left cheek to wipe away some of the moisture from her tears there. His hand then opens up and he cups her face in his hand as she sucks in a deep and ragged breath. "It's going to be okay." he says again very softly.

"No it's not." she says back to him. She lifts her face a little so she can look him in the eyes and shakes her head. "This...", she motions to him laying in the bed, "...is all my fault. Everything is my fault. None of this would have happened if I hadn't been with Jace. Everything has turned to shit now because of me." Even as she says those things, she can't find it in herself to regret being with Jace. Being with him taught her that all-consuming and world-changing love did exist...even if it did end up destroying the both of them. And yet seeing Sebastian laying here in the bed in pain after almost dying, she wouldn't take her time with Jace back. That thought brings on a whole new round of guilt and her head falls again. "I'm so selfish." she mutters.

"No you're not." Sebastian says to her. His hand goes to her chin and lifts her face up to look at him. "You have got to stop blaming yourself for every bad thing that happens around you. I'm in this hospital bed because I stepped in the way of a couple of bullets for you and I would do it again and again and again. The only person that is to blame for this is whoever it was that poisoned Stephen Herondale. None of this would have happened if whoever it was didn't frame you."

"But the only thing that matters is that Jace thinks that I am the one who killed his father. That is exactly what the evidence says happened so, to an extent, I don't blame him for believing it." Her hand comes up and she wipes away most of the tears away from her face.

"He's insane for believing that you would ever do that." Sebastian says with as much conviction as he can muster, laying in a hospital bed while in pain. "Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I saw the way the two of you were when you were together and you never looked at me like you looked at him."

She blanches a little at the comment and guilt settles in her stomach once again. Her eyes fall away from his and his hand leaves her face only to reach down and take one of her hands in his again. "Clary, there is no need to feel guilty about that. I can see on your face that you do." She chances a glance back up at him to see if he looks mad or anything and when she sees no sign of anger, she turns her face back to him. "I made peace with that fact a while back." he adds on and offers her a sad smile. "If he was too stupid to see that you would never do anything like that to him, then he's the biggest idiot in the entire world. Not to mention a raging asshole for trying to kill you. Talk about shitty exes. He makes me look like a saint."

Clary can't help but laugh a little at his comment. A few breathy chuckles escape her lips before she reaches up and wipes away a rogue tear that had spilled over her right eye. "Saint Sebastian." she says and they share a warm smile with one another. He holds her gaze for a few seconds after their laughing stills and she has to look away because the atmosphere had started to change. "I should probably wake Aunt Elodie up." she says and looks over her right shoulder to look at the lightly snoring woman. "She'll be thrilled that you're awake."

"Nah. Let her sleep." he replies and his thumb rubs along the back of the hand he is holding. "I'm sure she's worried herself half to death even though she probably hasn't shown it. She needs the rest."

"Okay." Clary tells him and offers him a small smile. "Can I get you anything? Do you need more pain medicine? Do you want me to get a nurse? How about a pillow. Do you want another one or maybe a blanket?"

He laughs once at her rambling and shakes his head. "I'm okay for now. I just feel a little short of breath."

"That's probably because they had to take out the piece of lung that the bullet tore through and patch it up."

"Yep. That would definitely cause me to be short of breath." he tells her with a raise of his brows. He shifts a little in bed and winces loudly when he tries to push himself up a little. "Damn. I should probably just stay still for now." he says with a small laugh that doesn't have any real feeling behind it.

"Here." Clary says and lets go of his hand to move to the other side of his bed. She walks around it and grabs a pillow and stuffs it under him gently to where his left shoulder is propped up a little like his right shoulder is, leveling out his body. "Is that better?"

"Yeah. Thanks." he tells her and is about to say something else when her phone vibrates in her back pocket. He is able to hear it in the quiet of the room and he closes his mouth and offers her a reassuring smile. "Go ahead. Answer it. It's probably your dad." he tells her.

"I probably should. I have a million missed calls." she tells him and doesn't even look at the screen before answering it. "Hello?" she says while turning around and facing away from Sebastian.

"Clary." a deep voice says and she freezes still, instantly recognizing who it is.

* * *

Jace slams down the empty glass onto the bar and nods his head toward it indicating he wants more. Bat looks hesitant to give him what he wants but after seeing the look in the blonde's eyes, he begrudgingly pours him another round of whiskey. Jace looks down into the glass and swirls the dark liquid around before bringing the glass to his lips and taking a sip. His head is foggy but what Aline told him still won't go away. "How long have we known each other, Bat?" Jace asks him with a slight slur to his words.

"About four years." he answers him. Jace came into his bar almost two hours earlier, about thirty minutes before it was supposed to open, and pounded on the door till he opened it. The moment Bat saw his face, he knew something was seriously wrong. He had a dead and detached look in his eyes. Jace then pushed his way inside and threw down a fat stack of cash and told him to keep his bar closed for the night. That he was going to be there all night.

"We have a good system going, don't we?" Jace asks him with a half smile. "I bring the ladies in and you act as my secret wing-man, making me look good without them knowing you're on my side."

"Yeah." Bat says with a smile. "I've seen you take home some serious tail from here...not that you ever needed any help from me."

"Yeah. But it surely didn't hurt to have you." Jace says with a loud laugh that is unfitting of the conversation. "Clary picked up on it pretty quickly though. She always did see right through all my shit though."

"Sorry to hear about the two of you." Bat offers with a sad tone. He leans forward, resting his hands on the bar while his shoulders push up to beside his ears. "I certainly didn't see that coming."

"Well, it's funny you should bring that up..." Jace says with a twisted grin. Before he can say anything else, there is a knock on the bar door. Bat looks up expectantly and yells "It's open." loudly so whoever it was would hear. The door swings open to reveal Alec. His eyes quickly find Jace and he steps into the empty bar.

Jace looks over at Alec and snorts out one small breathy laugh. "How did you know where to find me?" he asks.

"Bat called me." Jace looks up to Bat who looks slightly apologetic as Alec continues. "He said that you were in a bad place and were drinking. Told me I should come and check on you." Alec finishes as he walks over to Jace and pulls out the bar stool next to him. He sits down and looks at his friend with worried eyes. "You look like shit." he tells him. "I thought you were doing better today."

"I was." Jace says as he looks down at his drink and brings it to his lips. He takes a sip of it and then sets it back down in front of him on the bar as he watches the liquid slosh around inside the glass.

"What happened?" Alec asks softly, reaching out and placing his hand on Jace's shoulder.

"Do you think Clary would take me back?" he asks. "I mean, would you take Magnus back after you thought he tried to have you killed? Even if you found out that the order to kill you came from someone else acting on their own that worked for you?"

"What are you going on about?" Alec asks, but Jace doesn't give up. He cuts him off. "Well, would you? Would you forgive Magnus and take him back?"

Alec closes his mouth for a moment as he takes a slow breath and then says, "I broke up with Magnus. We just weren't working out. And why are you even asking that question? Did you find something out?"

Jace very somberly shakes his head. "No. I haven't heard anything yet. The question was purely hypothetical. I guess it was also somewhat wishful thinking." There is a quiet moment that passes before Jace speaks again. "Sorry to hear about you and Magnus. I thought you two loved each other."

Alec shifts a little uncomfortably in his seat. "I guess we did but...he just wasn't what I wanted. I couldn't give him all of me and he saw that which created problems between us."

"Does this mean that the both of us are single again?" Jace asks with a sad chuckle and Alec moves his hand down Jace's arm and grabs hold of his wrist just as he is bringing the glass of whiskey to his lips, stopping it before it gets there. "Jace." he says softly. "You can talk to me. It just seems like maybe Clary isn't who you were supposed to be with like I wasn't supposed to be with Magnus."

"But I love her, Alec. She was the brightest thing in my life and now she's gone." the blonde says with a little fervor. "I never thought I would ever find someone I could love like I love her...and now, I don't have her anymore. It feels like my life is crumbling around me and everyone I love is either dying or leaving me or going behind my back to try and destroy everything I have. Everything my father left me."

"I'm sure Michael never meant any harm. He was only trying to get justice for your father. And as for the people you love, you still have your mom and my family and...you still have me. I'll never go anywhere." Alec's voice is serious and there is another hint of some other emotion laced in with the seriousness. Jace finally looks up from his glass of whiskey and makes eye contact with Alec to see if he can read what that emotion is on his face. "Maybe you were looking in all the wrong places to find love. I always knew you could love with all your being but it was misplaced in Clary. She never appreciated what you gave her. Maybe you should look right in front of you. Maybe..." Alec pauses and then a determined look crosses his eyes before they turn hooded.

He leans forward and before Jace knows what is happening, Alec's lips are on his. He sits still, too surprised to pull away. Alec takes this as a good sign and begins to move his lips against Jace's. His hand leaves his wrist and he places it on the side of Jace's face just as he feels Alec's tongue ghost across his lips. This action seems to snap Jace out of his shocked state and he quickly pulls back. "What are you doing?" Jace asks confused.

"I'm finally telling you how I feel." Alec says sounding relieved. His whole posture changes. It looks like a huge weight has just been lifted off of his shoulders and he sits up straighter and more confident. He goes to lean in for another kiss but Jace pulls back again, leaving his lips slightly puckered between them before saying, "I've been in love with you since we were teenagers, Jace, and I think you feel the same way about me too. You're just too stubborn to admit it or you haven't realized it yet. We are perfect together. The only reason I even started dating Magnus was because I was trying to make you jealous." He slides off the bar stool, standing up in the space between the two seats. Jace turns his body slightly to his friend so he can see and hear him better; engrossed by his surprising words.

"But then..." Alec says with a sneer to his voice and a narrowing of his eyes, "...you started dating Clary. I thought it would be just a fling like every single other woman you've been with, but no. You stayed with her even though she wasn't right for you."

"And what?" Jace asks indignantly. "You are? You are the person I am supposed to be with?"

"Yes!" Alec whisper yells. "Can't you see that now? That kiss we just shared..." His bright blue eyes soften and his body relaxes a little as he looks at him. "It was wonderful. Couldn't you feel that?"

"No, Alec." Jace replies sounding upset. "I didn't feel anything. I'm not gay, Alec. I thought you knew that by now."

"Love doesn't care if you are gay or not. It just happens. We would be a fool to ignore the connection we have with each other." Alec starts to sound a little desperate since he wasn't getting the reaction he was obviously hoping for. There is a silence that settles over the bar and after around fifteen loaded seconds, he finally speaks again, his tone soft and pleading. "Can you just give us a chance? Just try it with me." When Jace doesn't respond, he starts to lean into him like he is going to kiss him again and Jace leans back away from him for the second time.

Hurt crosses Alec's eyes as he watches Jace slowly stand up and back a few steps away from him. "Is that why you did it?" Jace asks him. "Because you are in love with me and were jealous?"

Confusion washes over Alec and his brows furrow. "Did what? What are you talking about?"

"It is, isn't it?" Jace says again. "You were jealous. You just couldn't stand it. Was me telling you that I was going to ask her to marry me the final straw? Was that what drove you to the extreme measures you took?"

Alec swallows roughly and shifts his weight. "What are you talking about? What extreme measures? I have no idea what you are referring to."

"Yes you do." Jace says. "I lied earlier when I said I hadn't heard anything from Aline."

"Jace, you are starting to worry me." he replies with a nervous edge to his voice. "I have no idea what you are getting at."

" _STOP FUCKING LYING!_ " Jace yells at the top of his lungs, breaking into the charged stillness of the room. Alec jumps from the sudden noise. Blood rushes to the blonde's face as liquid fire burns behind his eyes. " _YOU_ , Alec, my _BEST FRIEND_ , my _BROTHER_ , killed my father and framed the woman I love for it. And it was all because you were _JEALOUS_!"

"Jace..." Alec says worriedly and raises his hands in front of him. "I don't know what you heard but..."

"Just drop the act, Alec!" he yells at him. "I _KNOW!_ The guy you bought the cyanide from was a newly recruited informant of ours. You didn't know that or you wouldn't have gone to him in the first place." Alec's face visibly pales then, wiping clean of any emotion other than shock and surprise. "And then, when I told you that I was going to do my own investigation, you went back to him and gave him a hundred thousand dollars to keep his mouth shut. Told him that if he kept his mouth shut and he wasn't found out after six months, you'd give him another fifty thousand dollars."

"Jace...I..." Alec tries to say but Jace throws the glass in his hand at his head. Alec ducks just in time for it to fly over his head and crash into the wall behind him.

" _SHUT UP!_ " Jace yells. "I trusted you more than anyone. I never in a million lifetimes thought you would be capable of something like this. Of hurting me like this."

"He wasn't supposed to die!" Alec yells back. "I didn't think I put that much poison in the cigars. It was an accident! You have to know that it was an accident."

"You _fucking_ bastard." he remarks quietly, his voice thick with disgust. Jace knew that Alec had done it after talking with Aline but hearing it come straight from his mouth was like twisting the dagger that was already placed in his back by his best friend. A tear unwillingly escapes his eye. "You took away _everything_ that I ever loved away from me. Including yourself. I was sitting here trying to come up with a reason why you would do that to me and for the life of me, I couldn't find one reason. I couldn't think of one thing that I had done to you to make you hate me so much."

"I don't hate you." Alec says hurriedly as tears fall from his eyes. "I _love_ you. Everything I have ever done is because I love you. She wasn't right for you. She doesn't love you like I do. No one could ever love you like I do. She was going to ruin you and the business your father and grandfather built. She was just using you. Why can't you see that?"

"Oh, I can see perfectly clear for the first time ever. You destroyed my life, Alec. My best friend, my brother, destroyed me and everything that ever meant anything to me. That's what I see."

"Jace, just...you have to understand..."

Jace cuts him off. "I am going to give you twelve hours to get out of town. The only reason I am extending you this courtesy is because of our past together. Try your best to disappear because when that twelve hours is up, I am going to come looking for you. And trust me when I say this; neither you or I want me to find you."

"Jace...please..." Alec says, his voice hiccuping unevenly as he starts to cry harder. His eyes are pleading and desperate as he takes a hesitant step toward Jace.

"I suggest you leave now. You'll need every second you can get." Jace says as a warning. His eyes are cold and closed off as he tries to hide just how hurt he is and how much this kills him to do this to Alec. He watches as Alec's face falls and his hands fall to his sides. He backs up a few steps before turning and reaching the door and opening it with one last look back at Jace before he disappears on the other side of it.

Jace stands there for a moment, just looking at the door until his calm demeanor finally breaks. His face scrunches up in anger as he reaches down and picks up one of the stools and throws it across the bar. It hits the door and falls to the ground, a leg breaking off, as a deep and tortured scream escapes his mouth. He feels so utterly lost right now and all he can think is how much he wishes Clary and his father were here.

He should have believed her. He knows her better than anyone. She would never do anything like this to him but he was too blinded by his anger and grief to see that. And now, after his men tried to kill her, he's worried that she won't forgive him. He wouldn't blame her if she didn't.

Looking back at everything now, it all makes sense though. Alec's immediate and intense hatred of Clary and how he avoided her as much as possible; always saying he was busy when he invited him on double dates with them. Alec was constantly asking if he was sure of her and would say that he was moving too fast and that he shouldn't trust her. He was trying to place seeds of doubt in his mind from the start and undermine his relationship with her.

And then, when he took him ring shopping with him, he was very aloof and distant and standoff-ish when he asked him about the ring he picked out. Jace then realizes something that he had completely overlooked. "Alec was there." he says to himself. As they were leaving the jewelry store, he got a call from Clary telling him that she had just gotten the cigars for his father for his birthday. He looked over and told Alec about them, giving him time to come up with a plan and get the cyanide that he used for it. He is also one of the few people that know the code to his father's office so he would have been able to take his time poisoning them during the party after he had put them in there for safe keeping. All of the evidence was right there in front of him but he just refused to see it. He was blinded by his relationship with Alec, unable to even fathom that he would do something like this to him.

Another wave of betrayal and anger rush through him then. He thought Alec had understood that he would always just be his friend when he told him he was in love with him when they were sixteen. But all this time, he still felt the same way, even though Jace never gave him any indication that he was anything other than his friend and vice versa. Alec had built up this imaginary relationship between them and had convinced himself of it and Jace never had a clue. He also never thought that he could ever do this to him. The pain that that thought brings him is crushing.

A movement catches his eye and he looks up to see Bat still standing in the corner of the bar. Apparently, he had been there the whole time and heard everything. "You alright Jace?" Bat asks him in a quiet concerned voice.

"Not at all." Jace replies as he takes a step over to the bar and sits down on another stool. "My best friend ruined my life by killing my father, destroying my mother's heart, taking the love of my life away from me and then taking himself away from me as well. I don't even know where to start to try and fix everything or even if it can even be fixed." Jace reaches over the bar and grabs a random bottle of liquor and takes a long drink of it before slamming it back down on the bar. "I guess the first thing is to tell my mother."

He pulls out his phone from his pocket, feeling the cold thin band of the engagement ring he's been carrying with him, while his stomach twists uncomfortably. He's not sure why he's carried it since she left but he can't seem to bring himself to put it back in his safe. Before he can dial his mother's number, Bat steps forward and places himself in front of him. "Jace, if I may, can I offer you some advice?" he asks him.

"Sure." he replies with a shrug of his shoulders. "Drink this." Bat says and pulls up a yellow-green liquid drink that smells of lemon and kiwi and sets it in front of him. "This will sober you up. Then you need to go home and start fixing everything. You love Clary and she loves you. I've never seen two people love each other more than the two of you love each other. Fight for her. It's not too late to fix this huge fucked up mess."

"Do you think she would forgive me?" Jace asks with a disbelieving tone to his voice.

"I don't know, but I do know one thing. She certainly won't forgive you if you stay here getting drunk while doing nothing and you will never see her again. An unnecessary war between your two families will break out and more people you love will die and you will regret never trying to get her back till the day you die."

Jace looks Bat in the eyes and it's like a light goes off. Sitting here feeling sorry for himself won't make him feel any better. He'll wallow in his own misery, all the while, Clary will no doubt be at Sebastian's side, nursing him back to health while their bond grows stronger. Her anger towards Jace will grow and grow each day after the betrayal she feels from what she believes is his attempt to kill her wears off. She'll grow to hate him with all of her being for not believing her, tossing aside their relationship, and then trying to kill her while ending up hurting the people she loves instead.

"You're right." he tells Bat quietly. "I'm not doing myself any good sitting here in your bar." He grabs the drink and gulps it down, relishing in the slightly spicy taste of it that wakes up his senses. "Thanks, man." he tells him as he stands up and his world tilts slightly from the liquor.

"Anytime." he replies and watches as Jace leaves his bar.

Jace pushes the door to his penthouse open and steps into the dark foyer area. He tosses his keys onto the table next to the door and walks in while holding the phone tightly to his ear. "I don't care what time it is." he tells Andrew Blackthorn, the guy just under Michael Wayland. "I want him brought to me."

Andrew agrees and then there is a beep signalling he has another call. Jace pulls the phone away from his face and looks at the screen to see his mother's number. "I've got to go." he says before sliding over the answer button. "Mom. Sorry to wake you up but I'm glad you called me back." He turns and heads for his kitchen and grabs a glass from the cabinet and fills it with water. He reaches over and flips on the dim light over his stove, not wanting to turn on the bright light of his kitchen because of his rapidly developing headache.

"What's going on?" his mother's worried voice asks him.

Jace swallows down the pain in his chest as he says, "Aline got back to me. She found out who poisoned dad."

"Oh my gosh." Celine says. There is a rustling sound on her end and then the click of a light being turned on. "Who? Was it Clary?"

He quickly downs the glass of water, needing it to help sober him up and flush out the alcohol. "No. It wasn't her." He takes a deep breath before he says it. "It was Alec."

"WHAT?!" she shouts into the phone. "You can't be serious." Her voice full of disbelief.

"Unfortunately, Mom, I am serious." He brings his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he scrunches his eyes shut tight. "When I confronted him, he admitted it."

"But...why? Why would he do that?" Her voice cracks a little and she hiccups a soft cry into the phone. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It makes perfect sense." he tells her tightly. "Listen, I don't want to get into all of that right now. I already have too much to deal with because of the hit Michael ordered on Clary, that _fucking bastard_."

"Michael did what?!" she shouts surprised.

"Yeah. Since I told him to take over for a few days, he thought that the next logical step would be to order a hit on her. I beat him to a bloody pulp for it and once everything else it settled, I'll decide what to do with him then. As for right now, all of my attention will be going to fixing everything that Alec and him fucked up."

"How are you holding up, Jace?" she asks him, her tone turning soft and concerned.

"I'll be better once I'm done with this." he tells her. "I love you, Mom. I'll tell you more tomorrow. I've got to go."

"Okay." she says after a pause. "Call me if you need anything. I love you too. Bye."

"Bye." He sets his phone down on the counter and turns to go into his living room. As soon as he rounds the corner, he looks up and sees the silhouette of a rope hanging from one of his light fixtures in front of the wall of windows along the back of his place. The end of the rope it tied into the shape of a noose and Jace stops dead in his tracks.

He reaches down for the gun and knife he always keeps with him and finds nothing. That's when he remembers that he changed out of his clothes after he got blood all over them and put on some of his father's things. He was too shocked after finding out what Aline told him to remember to get them from his pants that he discarded on the floor of his office. His heart picks up to double time as his eyes start to scan the area for someone in the dark of his penthouse.

A light flips on over by the door and his head snaps over to it. There, leaning casually against the door with his hand extended to the light switch beside it, is Jonathan Morgenstern. He is dressed in head to toe black. There are gloves covering his hands and his hair is tightly tucked under a dark beanie, not allowing one snowy white hair to escape. That's when he notices a thick wire is in his hands with toggles tied to either end of it.

He's going to strangle him and then hang him from his ceiling to make it look like he killed himself.

There is the beginning of a twisted smile on his lips that makes his fast look purely sinister and dangerous. It almost looks like he is enjoying himself. "I thought you'd never come home." Jonathan says with exasperation and pushes off of the door.

* * *

 _It was Alec! I know this might make some of you angry because you love Alec but it was always going to be him; even before I started writing this story I knew this was how it was going to go._

 _That being said, go check out my profile pic of me in Rome! I'm eager to share my trip with y'all._

 _As always, thanks a billion for reading and don't forget to follow and review!_


	24. Chapter 24

"How'd you get in here?" Jace blurted out stupidly. He sounded like those stupid people in the movies, asking all the wrong questions in moments like this. Who cares how he got in here? What matters is that he _is_ in his place with him.

"I told you that there would never be a place where I wouldn't find you and be able to get to you if you ever hurt my sister the first time we ever met. And anyway, does it really matter how I got in here?" Jonathan takes a step closer to him and Jace's eyes dart to his side table where he has a gun taped to the underside of it. They are on opposite sides of the room and Jace quickly calculates if he would be able to get to it in time before Jonathan got to him. There are two couches and a couple of pieces of other furniture in his way.

"It's not there." Jonathan says coolly. Jace looks up at him and furrows his brows ever so slightly in confusion. "I found that gun along with all of your other weapons. In fact, you aren't very creative with your hiding places." Jonathan gives him a chastising shake of his head in disapproval.

Jace takes a step back and to the side trying to counter every move that Jonathan makes. "If you were in here waiting for me then surely you heard my phone conversation." Jace asks, trying and succeeding in hiding just how nervous he is. From everything that he's learned about Clary's brother from rumors and subtle hints Clary herself had dropped, he was as fast as the wind and deadlier than a cornered viper.

"I did." Jonathan admits with a nod of his head as he passes by one of Jace's lamps and flicks that light on as well, lighting up the room even more.

"So you know that I had nothing to do with the attempt on Clary's life." He counter's Jonathan's last few steps toward him with some backwards ones of his own.

"That still doesn't absolve you of some of the responsibility of it." he says as his dark eyes narrow at him like he is his prey.

"I agree with you on that." Jace answers. "But you have to know that I never even thought about wanting her dead. In fact, that is the very last thing in the whole world that I want. My second, Michael Wayland, ordered the hit without my knowledge or permission."

"I heard that part." Jonathan says as he takes a deep breath, looking like he is thinking hard about it.

"Then you also heard that I found out that it wasn't Clary that killed my father." Jace swallows past the lump in his throat before he can say what comes out of his mouth next. "It was my best friend, Alec Lightwood."

"I heard that as well." Jonathan replies. "That just reminds me that you blamed my sister for it even though she, nor any of us over at the Morgenstern camp, had anything to do with it."

"I know." he replies. "I was angry and irrational at the moment. I only saw what was in front of me and when I calmed down, I knew that it couldn't be right. She couldn't have done that to me. That's why I ordered my own investigation within my organization which led me to Alec."

"Is that supposed to make me feel any better?" Jonathan asks with a snide tone. "You broke my little sister's heart. Ripped it down the middle. You didn't see what she was like when she got home that night or what she's been like since then." His eyes have narrowed into slits and Jace notices that his fists are clenched tightly in anger. "She's been trying to stay strong around us and every moment she hasn't been crying herself to death when she's alone, she's been working with my father constantly to try and figure out who it really was who killed your father. She's been desperate to figure it out to prove to you that she didn't do it; find hard evidence to prove it. All she kept saying is that she had to prove it to you and get you back because it hurt too much to live without you."

Jace's heart sinks into his stomach at Jonathan's words and he feels something break inside of him. He doesn't want to know that he made her cry and caused her that much pain. He never, ever wanted to be the reason she hurt and yet here Jonathan is telling him that he broke Clary's heart in two. His already torn heart tugs even further apart and now is only held together by a tiny string. One more blow to it would surely cause that string to break and he would never recover. "Do you think she could forgive me?" he says before even thinking about saying it. His voice is uncharacteristically vulnerable and almost foreign to his own ears. His eyes have left Jonathan for the first time and dropped to the floor in shame. "If you don't think she will, just kill me now. I've already lost my father and my best friend. I can't lose the love of my life too. It would be the end of me. I wouldn't be able to survive it."

Jace doesn't care anymore that Jonathan is there to kill him. He drops his tense stance and walks dejectedly over to his couch and takes a seat there, all the while looking down at his feet. Jonathan could easily come up behind him and kill him right now and he would welcome it. He doesn't want to live with knowing that he destroyed Clary's heart. He doesn't want to live with the betrayal that Alec, his brother, did to him and without his father who would be there to help him pick up all the pieces and figure out how to fix it. He should pretend to be strong and say that he could get through all of this but that would be a lie. He isn't that strong anymore. Not after everything that has happened.

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the ring he bought Clary and holds it in his fingers. He turns it over and over in his hands, looking down at what could have been if he hadn't been so stupid.

"What's that?" he hears Jonathan say from somewhere to his left but he doesn't look up to see exactly where from. "I was going to ask Clary to marry me. I got this three days before my father died and then...well, you know." He moves it around so it catches the available light in the room and reflects it onto the wall. "She's everything to me and I've fucked it all up. The first time my love for her was put to the test, I failed in the biggest way possible and broke both of us in the process. I don't deserve her." A drop of water hits his hands then and that is when he realizes that tears are running silently down his cheeks in a soft flood.

"No." Jonathan says firmly. "You don't." There is a long moment of silence that stretches between them. "But that isn't my decision to make."

Jace is surprised by his words and finally looks up to see Jonathan standing only a few feet away from him. He looks like he is thinking hard about something. His blonde brows are furrowed in deep thought while his dark eyes are appraising him. "I'll make you a deal, Herondale." he says breaking the silence that followed his statement. Jonathan crosses his arms across his chest and leans back on his heels with hard eyes. "You give me that fucker Wayland that put a hit out on Clary and the two men who betrayed us to do it, and I'll leave here and let you live. You will have your chance to make things right with my sister."

"You don't think it's too late for me and her?" he asks him hopefully.

"I'm not sure after Sebastian getting shot but it would be worth a try after she hears the truth about everything. I'm sure you know about Simon and if I know my sister, Sebastian taking two bullets for her in the back is certain to remind her of him. She may not forgive you for that because all of this started with you not believing her and not trusting her."

"Why are you proposing this?" Jace asks, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Jonathan takes a deep breath and blows it out through his nose slowly as if he is trying to figure out why he is proposing this deal himself. After a thoughtful pause he says, "Because I am not a complete monster. I love my sister and against her better judgement, she loves you. I can also see that you love her; more than I honestly would like to admit. She deserves the right to decide what to do with you now that I know the truth. And anyways, you look like a drowned puppy. Where's the fun in killing you if you welcome it?"

Jace drops his eyes from Jonathan then. What he is offering him seems like a fair solution. There is only one problem though.

Michael Wayland.

He's been a loyal and faithful member of his family and his business since before he was born. He's his godfather for fuck's sake. Michael has been there for him when he's needed him and has never betrayed him or his family. He always did what he was asked of and helped make hard decisions that were the correct ones to make, even though it was tough to make them. Amatis quickly pops into his mind as one of them.

On the other hand, if he doesn't give him to Jonathan, he will have to try to fight him off right here and now. Jace is confident in his fighting abilities but against Jonathan...he's not so sure. One of them would surely end up dead. If it were him, his mother and Wayland would be left to take over everything. Knowing the emotional state his mother is in right now, he wouldn't be surprised if she killed herself in the event of his death.

If he were somehow able to fight off Jonathan and would surely have to kill him to do so, it would be all out war. Clary would never forgive him and more of his people would unavoidably die. In the fragile state that his business is in right now, he's not sure if he would be able to hold everything together to fend off the Morgensterns. His mother would undoubtedly become Valentine's highest priority target. He would want him to feel how if felt to lose a family member the way he killed Jonathan. Not to mention the logistics of moving product would become a nightmare and he would lose millions.

"Alright." Jace says barely above a whisper. While it feels like the ultimate betrayal to his godfather Michael, it really is the only reasonable thing to do in his situation. Giving him to Jonathan would be the end of the feud between the families. There would be no fighting and he would have his chance to make everything right again after Alec fucked it up so badly. He has to remind himself that all of this started from his side of the battle field in the first place. It was a well orchestrated betrayal from within designed to put him against the Morgensterns, especially Clary. He can't let Alec win. He has to do what it takes to fix this even if it feels horrible to do so.

A dark chuckle escapes his lips at the thought that this is what Michael would do. Sacrifice the one for the greater good of the many.

"I agree. I will give you Michael Wayland." Jace reiterates, raising from his couch and turning to face Jonathan. "But as for the ones who betrayed you from within, I can't help you there."

"And why not? I thought that would be the easiest part of the deal for you." he asks.

"Because, I already killed them." Jace tells him while looking him in the eye. "Michael had just flipped them to us and when I saw them outside of his office after I beat him unconscious, I killed them for trying to harm Clary." Jace raises his hands to show him that his knuckles are bruised and busted open and then gestures to his clothes. "I had to put on my father's clothes because I was covered in all of their blood afterwards. I can give you their bodies though if you want."

Jonathan's brows raise in surprise and looks him up and down as if he is appraising him. "I didn't think you had it in you." Jonathan admits.

"That's what I like for people to think." he says back to him with a little darkness to his voice.

Jonathan nods his head in appreciation. "I get that. You do it well." He then takes a deep breath and unfolds his arms from across his chest. The thick air in the room seems to dissipate some as they both relax just a little. "Have Wayland at my father's docks by ten. It's late and I want to get some sleep before tomorrow. It's going to be a long day for me."

The way Jonathan says that lets Jace know that he isn't exactly talking about skipping rope in the park. He's going to slowly kill Wayland for trying to kill Clary.

There is a wave of guilt that washes over Jace fast and hard at that thought but he quickly pushes it away. Sometimes you have to make the hard decisions like this to prevent further problems that could possibly end in multiple people's deaths. "I'll have him there." Jace tells him. He raises his hand out in front of him and holds it there while looking into Jonathan's eyes. Jonathan seems to think about it for a moment before his hand slowly comes out and takes his. They shake hands firmly twice before letting go.

"All of your weapons are under your mattress." Jonathan tells him as he turns away from him and starts to make his way towards his door. "I'll relay everything I've learned to my father for you." He reaches the door then and twists the knob. The door swings open and just as Jonathan is stepping through it, he turns and looks back to Jace who is still over by his couch. "If I were you, I'd start by trying to make amends with my father first before you try to speak with Clary. He's old school like that."

He makes like he is going to leave again but stops after turning and looking out of his door towards the elevator. "I'm sorry about your father, Jace. That's really fucked up what Alec did. I hope you make him pay for it." Without turning and looking at Jace again, he steps through the door and pulls it shut behind him. To Jace's utter surprise, he hears the locks turning on his door from the outside which means Jonathan had a key to his place even though he just had his locks changed. That revelation sends a nervous wave of energy down his spine that raises the hairs all over his body. No one has ever made him nervous the way Jonathan Morgenstern does. He's absolutely lethal. Sly, quiet, and cunning like a snake. You don't know he's there until it's too late and he strikes.

He falls back onto his couch and brings his hand up to his face and covers it. "How the fuck am I going to fix this?" he mutters to himself thinking of Clary and her father. All he knows right now is that his head is pounding and he needs to get a glass of water before he is able to figure any of this out.

* * *

Clary freezes in her spot in the hospital room. Her feet feel like they have taken up root there. "Alec." she says in utter surprise. "Why are you calling me?"

His voice is as cold as it has always been towards her when Jace wasn't around. "Jace wants to see you."

"What?" she says, barely making the words audible for him to hear across the phone line.

"He wants to see you today." he says again.

"Why? He just tried to have me killed. Why the hell would I go and meet him?"

"Because he wasn't the one who ordered the hit on you." Alec explains. "Michael Wayland did it without his knowledge."

Clary can't believe her ears. "What? Wayland ordered it?"

"Yes. And when Jace found out, he beat him bloody and unconscious. He wants to see you."

Her heart jumps in her throat as it takes off into a sprint. "Why does he want to see me? Doesn't he still think I killed his father. _Hell,_ don't _you_ still think I killed him?"

"Actually, no." Alec says with an unfamiliar edge to his voice. "Aline found out a few things and he's having his doubts now. He wants to meet you alone in the park where you had your first date."

Red flags start to fly up in her mind. There is an uneasiness that settles in her gut. "Why didn't he just call me himself if he wanted to meet with me?" Clary hears Sebastian say something and then groan like he is in pain but she is too focused on what Alec is saying to find out what he said.

"Because he threw his phone across the room and now it's broken."

"Then he should be there with you. If he can't call you to tell you that he wants to meet me because he has no phone, that surely means that he is there with you right now. Why don't you put him on the phone for me. I want to hear it come from his mouth."

"He's busy right now, Clary. Are you going to come or not?" His words have turned short and his tone is verging on anger.

She thinks about it for a moment. "No. If he wants to meet with me, tell him to call me himself and we'll talk."

There is a long breath of annoyed air that is released into the phone from his line. "Why must you make everything so fucking _difficult_?" he sneers into the phone. "From the moment you forced your way into my life, you've been a cancer that just refuses to go away. Eating away at everything that I've ever loved."

" _Is she coming?_ " she hears someone else say on the other end of the line in the background. " _If she's not going to take the bait, do you want me to go to her and do her wherever she is?_ "

"What the _FUCK_?" Clary says loudly, unable to control her voice. "You're trying to set me up?!"

"Of course I am." he admits when he realizes that she heard the other guy. "Jace wants you dead just like I do. He fucking hates your guts, you two dollar whore."

She quickly hangs up the phone then, not wanting to hear another word come from his mouth. She feels two small hands come to rest on the tops of her arms and hears Sebastian calling her name. Clary turns her head to him to see his very worried face and then Aunt Elodie is stepping into her view. "Clary. Are you okay? Who was that?" she asks her.

"It was Alec Lightwood." she says as she wipes away a lone tear. She has no idea why she was starting to cry and that makes her angry. "He was trying to get me to go somewhere so I could be killed. He told me that Jace wanted to see me because he started to doubt that I did it. I didn't get a good feeling about what he was saying and then I heard someone ask if I was falling for what he was telling me."

"Oh sweetheart." Aunt Elodie says and wraps her in a soft hug. "Don't you worry. Your father won't let anyone within a mile of you."

Clary nods her head and looks over to Sebastian over his aunt's shoulder. By the look in his eyes, he knows that that isn't why she was crying. She's crying because Jace still wants her dead. He still thinks that she is the one that killed Stephen.

Clary steps out of her grasp and walks over to Sebastian, wanting to be near him because he knows why she is really upset. "I'll kill him for hurting you like this." he says softly as he tries to raise his hand to her and fails. She reaches out and takes his hand and he seems satisfied with this. He leans back to a more comfortable position and winces quietly as pain spreads through him from the movement.

"You have to take it easy, Sebastian." she tells him and wipes away the other tear that managed to escape her eyes. "Go back to sleep. I'll still be here when you wake up. I promise." She gives his hand a reassuring squeeze and he smiles at her and nods. After a few more minutes, his body relaxes and he falls asleep. She slowly pulls her hand from his and kisses him gently on the forehead before stepping away from him. "I spoke with the nurse and she said he's doing great. The doctor should be in after lunch." She turns and walks back to the bed that her and Aunt Elodie shared and sits next to where she is sitting on it.

"That's good news." she replies. "But Clary, are _you_ okay?"

"If you want the honest answer...no. I'm far from okay." she admits to her. "But at least I have the two of you and my family to help me through this fucked up mess that I've made."

Aunt Elodie just wraps one arm around Clary's shoulders and grabs her hands that are in her lap with her free hand. "I'll always be here for you, sweetheart. Even if you and Sebastian aren't together. You are like a daughter to me. You know that."

The two women then lapse into silence as they watch Sebastian as he sleeps. Lunch comes and goes, the doctor stops by while he is still sleeping and tells them that he expects him to make a full recovery. It is just after dinner time when Sebastian finally wakes up again.

Clary looked up from where her and Aunt Elodie had been talking about the painting Jocelyn had done for her when she saw him lift up his arm and touch his chest. Both women rise quickly from their seat on the now folded up sofa bed and hurry to either side of him. Aunt Elodie grabs his hand while Clary smiles down at him. He cracks one eye open at his Aunt and she beams at him. "I'm so glad you're okay." she tells him. "Vous ne pouvez plus me faire peur de cette façon. Mon cœur ne sera pas capable de le supporter." (You can not scare me like that again. My heart will not be able to bear it.)

"Je vais essayer de ne pas le faire." (I will try not to.) Sebastian replied with a flawless French accent even though he was raised in New York. She then raised his hand to her lips and places a hard kiss on his knuckles.

Clary always loved when he spoke in French. It is such a beautiful language and she found it so sexy when he whisper to her in French when they were alone. The two of them smiled at each other for a moment before he turned to look at Clary. Out of the corner of her eye she saw his hand twitch next to her. It was the side where his lung was patched back together and he was barely able to move on that side. She reached down and took his hand in hers, knowing that is what he wanted, and smiled back at him. "You still snore like a freight train." she teased him.

His lips pulled back in an almost blinding smile before he let out a loud laugh for a moment before stopping and wincing at the pain that action caused him. "Oh my gosh. I'm sorry, Sebastian." she tells him as she looks worriedly down at him.

"I'm fine." he tells her as his smile softens. "I'm not that fragile."

"I know." She smiles back softly at him as his eyes sparkle up at her. "It's still not as bad as the chainsaw noise that you make." he teases her back.

"I do _not_ snore." Her eyes narrow playfully at him, making the cut under her right eye from the bullet pull tight, and she scowls for a moment at him before they both start to laugh softly. When their smiles start to fade, his face turns to that of worry. "You look so tired." he tells her. "You're still in the same clothes you were in when I was shot."

Clary looks down and is surprised to see that he is right. There are blood stains on the knees of her jeans where she was on the ground next to Sebastian after he was shot and the cuffs of her long sleeves are dotted with large splotches of his blood from where she was trying to stop his bleeding. There are some smears of red across her thighs where she wiped his blood off of her on her pants and some splatter of it across her chest. "Oh. I didn't even realize it." she says with shock. She suddenly wanted to rip her clothes off of her body. "I'll just..." Clary starts to fold up her sleeves in an effort to cover up the blood stains there, worrying if the sight of his blood on her bothers him. She gets them halfway up her arms before she notices that Sebastian is trying to reach across his body to stop her.

Her eyes look up and meet his. "Clary." he says to her and she stops what she is doing and takes his hand. "You should go home and take a shower and get some sleep."

"I've had plenty of sleep." she lies to him.

"No you haven't. I can see bags under your eyes."

"Thanks a lot." she replies dryly and he laughs once at her sour expression.

"But seriously, you look really tired. Plus, you are still covered in my blood. Go home and shower and have a good meal and good night's sleep. I'll still be here in the morning."

Guilt fills her stomach as she looks at him. "I can have someone bring me some clothes and I can take a shower in that bathroom right there." She nods her head to the bathroom in the corner of the room.

"I'm not taking no for an answer." he tells her firmly. His voice turns serious and he levels his eyes at her. "Go home. I don't want you here anymore."

A half smile cracks the right side of her mouth. "Liar." she says to him and he smiles back at her. "Maybe." he says while trying to shrug his shoulders.

"Go Clary." Aunt Elodie tells her. "He'll have me here with him."

The thought of taking a shower in her own room and sleeping in her own bed is appealing to her in ways that it never has been before. Now that she is aware of the blood all over her clothes, she can suddenly feel it where ever it is all over her body. She can feel the crustiness of it on her knees, under her jeans and on her small blonde arm hairs that are matted down with the remnants of it. "I guess I could use a good shower." she admits and pushes some of her hair out of her face and her fingers get tangled in a knot there. "And a brush for my hair." she jokes and they share a small smile.

"I guess I'll see you in the morning then." she says as she looks down at him.

"I'll be here." he says back. She leans down while holding his hand and goes to place a kiss on his cheek. As she is leaning in to him, they lock eyes. There is such deep emotion in his eyes that it momentarily shocks her. She stops for just a split second before continuing closer to him. Right as she reaches his cheek, he turns his head slightly towards her as his eyes close. Her lips touch his cheek, right at the corner of his mouth, and lingers there for a fraction of a second longer than necessary. When she stands back up, the air between them has changed. It is charged and thick and she looks away from him as a light blush creeps up on her cheeks.

She turns before he can see it and grabs her coat off of the sofa bed and walks to the door before chancing a look at him again. He is watching her with sparkling eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow." she says and gives him a small smile before stepping out of the room. 'What the hell was that?' she asks herself as she shrugs her coat on.

"Are you ready to go home, Miss. Morgenstern?" one of her father's guards, Jacob, asks her who was standing just outside of the door. She looks to her left and her right and sees five other familiar faces standing guard all along the hall as well.

"Yes. I am in desperate need of a shower." Clary reaches up and touches the cut along the top of her cheek and thinks about just how lucky she was to have Sebastian push her out of the way. If he hadn't been there, the bullet would have hit her right in the face and she would be dead right now. Her heart lurches painfully as she briefly allows herself to think that Jace is the reason for it before she clamps down on that train of thought. She will have plenty of time to cry her eyes out tonight in the privacy of her own room. She can't allow her father's men to see her break down. They would see it as a sign of weakness.

Instead, she turns her gaze hard and holds her head up high as all but two of her father's men surround her and begin to walk towards the elevator. Two stay behind and go to stand guard at Sebastian's door as the rest of them go with her. When they get to the elevator, there are already some of her father's men there holding the doors open for her. She steps in followed by three men and when the doors begin to shut, she finds herself smiling while thinking about Sebastian. She thinks she is starting to see him with different eyes than the ones she's had since they met and it's not all together a bad feeling.

* * *

Jace's right leg bounces up and down rapidly with nervous energy as he rests his mouth on his fist. His elbow is resting on the arm of the chair he is sitting in, allowing him to rest his face there while he is in deep thought. The darkness of the room helps him focus on the speech he is rehearsing over and over again in his mind. He keeps adding things on and taking things off of his speech, wanting it to be perfect but his mind keeps drifting back to this morning, unable to completely forget about it.

 _Jace walks around the corner of his father's office and to the the seemingly normal storage room down a small hall. He walks into it and moves around the small area to a hidden door behind a shelf of cleaning supplies. He punches in a code on a hidden pad before shoving the door open slowly. He flips on the light and sees his godfather, Michael Wayland, curled up in the only thing in the room; a small chair in the corner of the room with a blanket wrapped around him. His nose is crooked from where Jace broke it the day before while the rest of his face is swollen and purple from the rest of his beating. His head is leaned back on the wall behind him as he sleeps while hard sounding snores escape his throat from his slacked jaw._

 _Jace swallows past the lump lodged in his throat and steels himself before clearing his throat loudly. Michael's snores cut off abruptly. His head snaps forward and his tired eyes find Jace's and lock there. The blanket that he had wrapped around him gets tossed aside as the sleepiness is shaken from him. "Why am I in this room, Jace?" he asks him with barely concealed worry._

 _He knows he is asking this because this is where they keep people's loved ones when they want something from whoever they are related to. It also serves as a sort of interrogation room. In other words, no one wants to be locked in here because it never means anything good. Michael, of course, knows this._

 _"You are in here because your actions have left me with no other choice." he answers him with a hard tone. "I never wanted you to be in here."_

 _"Then let me out." he offers._

 _"I can't do that."_

 _"Why not? Because I tried to get justice for your father's death?!" His voice has risen to a shout. "Why do I have to keep reminding you that that girl killed your father?!"_

 _"And that is why you are here!" Jace shouts back at him. "You acted without my permission, without having all of the facts, and without having done a thorough investigation into the matter before starting a war with the Morgensterns!"_

 _"I don't understand." Michael says, losing the volume in his voice._

 _"It wasn't Clary or any of the other Morgensterns who killed my father." Jace says solemnly, looking him straight in the eyes. Shock spreads across Michael's face. "It was Alec Lightwood who killed him."_

 _"What?!" he yells in surprise. "Why the hell would he do that? He has no reason to. There is nothing for him to gain from it." There is a moment of silence that passes before he continues. "How do you know it was him?"_

 _"Aline told me at first and then when I confronted him, he admitted it." Jace answers him. He takes a deep breath and makes sure he is standing up straight and giving away no emotion as to how much saying it aloud hurt him. He has to keep his emotions in check if he is going to do this. "He had his own personal reasons."_

 _"It was because he is in love with you." Michael says quietly as all of the puzzles pieces start to fit together in his head._

 _"What?!" Jace says with absolute surprise. "How did you know?"_

 _"Because it is my job to know these kinds of things." he replies. "I never felt the need to tell you because nothing would ever come of it and I figured that Alec would wise up one day and realize that it was never going to happen between you two. I guess I was wrong about that." There is another moment of silence. "So he acted out of jealousy?"_

 _Jace just nods his head in answer. "And that brings us to the present." he says wanting to get this over with as quick as possible. "When I got home last night, Jonathan Morgenstern was waiting in my penthouse to kill me and make it look like a suicide. I was on the phone with my mother and telling her everything when I walked in the door. I told her about Alec and about how you had ordered the hit without my knowledge and so on and so on. If I hadn't been explaining everything to her, then I would be dead right now. Jonathan heard my conversation with her and offered me a compromise." Jace pauses for a moment to see if Michael has worked out in his head what the compromise is but his face holds nothing but curiousness on it. "He said that all would be good between our families again if I turned over the person who ordered the hit on Clary. If I don't, then all out war will break out."_

 _Jace watches with stone eyes as realization then fear then resignation flashes across Michael's face over the next minute, willing himself not to give away just how much this hurts him to do this to him. "I understand." Michael finally says after another minute passes, his voice low and hollow sounding._

He is pulled out of his memory when the sounds of heavy footsteps come closer to the room he is in. There is a feminine voice that says "I'll eat after my shower." away from his direction as they near him. He looks up from where he was resting his head on his fist and his heart jumps in his throat. He stills his leg from it's bouncing and nervously runs his fingers through his hair and licks his dry lips. It's now or never.

His eyes dart over to the door and he watches in the dark as it opens, spilling soft light from the hallway into the room. Clary steps into view looking over away from his direction and towards the bathroom with a longing look as her hand reaches out and clicks on a small lamp on her desk by the door. When the light fills the room, he sees just how ragged she looks.

Clary's hair is a tangled mess around her face and there is a two inch cut along her right cheek just under her eye. There is blood all over her jeans and the arms of her shirt have large splotches of the red liquid staining her purple shirt a dark muddy brown color. Her chest is covered in drops of blood that must have come from her own injury and along the hem of the shirt is a piece of the fabric that is barely hanging on after being torn somehow. Her beautiful green eyes are tired and are accentuated by the dark circles under them. She still hasn't noticed that he is sat in the plush chair in the opposite corner of her room.

Jace's heart clenches uncomfortably hard at the sight of her. She looks so tired and so hurt and broken.

The door falls shut behind her and as soon as it clicks shut, she falls apart. Her face contorts in pain as her hands come up to cover it. She falls back onto the door and leans heavily on it as if she can no longer stand on her own. Her shoulders start to shake as a strangled pain-filled sound falls from her lips.

That's when realization hits him like a ton of bricks. It's because of him that she's falling apart right now. The pain in knowing that and seeing her like this, so broken looking and hurt, is crippling to his soul. Before he knows it, a tear has escaped his eye.

He must have made some sort of noise because her head snaps up and over to him. He freezes under her gaze for a moment before standing up quickly. All he wants to do right now is hold her but the look on her face stops him from running across the room and wrapping her in his arms. The surprise on her face only lasts for a brief moment before fear takes over. She then lets out a small panicked scream as her eyes widen in fear at the sight of him.

This, more than anything, hurts him the most. Alec betraying him is nothing compared to the horror he feels when he realizes that Clary is terrified of him. A horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach makes him want to curl up and die as she scrambles back away from him along her wall.

"Clary...please." he says in a broken voice as he holds up his hands in a sign of peace. "I'm not going to hurt you."

* * *

Clary pushes the door to the Morgenstern manor open tiredly after looking down at her phone and seeing that it is five minutes till ten at night. She hadn't realized how exhausted she was till the car ride back home. The large heavy door swings shut behind her just as her mother comes around the corner and spots her. It's the first time they've seen each other since Jace tried to have her killed. "Mom." she says in a sad voice as the two women hurry towards each other with their arms held wide for an embrace. Jocelyn wraps her arms around her and Clary allows herself the moment of relief she feels from being held by her mom before she is pulling away. She's started to feel the backs of her eyes tingle and she wants to wait till she is alone in her room to allow herself to cry.

Jocelyn cups her daughter's face in her hands and inspects the cut under her eye. "Are you okay, sweetie?" she asks her.

"Yeah." Clary answers. "It's just a little scratch."

"You know that's not what I meant." her mother chides her and she looks away from her. 'Just hold on a little longer' she tells herself and steps away from her mother as her father comes into view. He walks up to her and takes her coat before tucking some hair behind her ear.

"I should have brought you some clothes up to the hospital." he says as he takes in that she is still wearing blood stained clothes. "I can't believe I didn't think of that." he chastises himself.

"It's fine." she assures him. "I'm just going to go up to my room and take a shower and change. I feel...gross and...just tired."

Both of her parents nod their heads in understanding while her father places a kiss on her temple as she passes. Jonathan appears from the staircase in jeans with a gun tucked in the waist band and a t-shirt while a red eyed Izzy follows closely behind him. "Izzy, what's the matter?" Clary asks worriedly and Izzy just smiles a tight smile and shakes her head. "I'm fine." she tells her. Clary knows that she isn't but doesn't push her to explain. She's honestly just trying to hold herself together long enough to make it upstairs without falling apart. He thankfully gives her her space as she walks over to the bottom of the stairs where he's stopped. "I'll be right here if you need me." Jonathan tells her in an oddly serious voice. She thinks about asking him why he sounded so strange when he said that but just keeps walking instead.

Her feet are heavy as she climbs the stairs as the events of the last two days settles over her. She still doesn't understand how everything that was so perfect in her life went to absolute shit so quickly. When she reaches the top of the stairs she hears her mother ask her if she wants to eat dinner now. "I'll eat after my shower." she calls over her shoulder while looking down at her family that is very oddly watching her every move as she walks from the bottom of the stairs. 'Weird.' she thinks briefly before dismissing it and seeing her door ahead of her.

Relief washes over her then, glad that she finally won't have to hold herself together much longer. She starts to allow herself to feel the hurt that she has buried deep down inside of her since being shot at by the men Jace sent. She reaches her door then as pain wraps itself around her heart and she finally allows it to take hold there. Her door opens and she slides in the room and clicks on the lamp just to the right of her door. As soon as the door is shut, she falls against it, unable to hold her tired self upright as the horrible pain in her chest is finally allowed to spread.

It almost crushes her with the force of it. The man she is hopelessly in love with wants her dead. There can be no other worse feeling than that, she is sure of it. Unable to hold it back a second longer, tears start to pour from her eyes in a downpour as her face twists to mirror the pain she is feeling on the inside. Her hands come up to her face and a tortured wail breaks free of her lips. Her whole body is now shaking with the force of her sobs.

Suddenly, there is a small noise. It sounds like a sharp intake of breath and Clary's head snaps up and over to where the sound came from.

There, sitting in her plush chair that she likes to read in, is Jace. Once her eyes land on him, he stands up quickly and fear grips her throat as she chokes out a small scream. 'Oh my gosh, he's here in my room to finish me off since I didn't fall for Alec's phone call.' she thinks to herself.

Except the look on his face isn't what she was expecting. She expected him to look angry with hard eyes but instead, he looks incredibly hurt. He raises his hands, palms facing her and says, "Clary...please. I'm not going to hurt you."

* * *

 _I've changed my profile pic now to one of me at the Trevi Fountain. It was so beautiful!_

 _As always, thanks for reading! Please don't forget to follow, favorite, and review! Tell me what you think!_


	25. Chapter 25

I got a message from someone saying that they didn't get notified when my last chapter went up last night. Everytime I try to delete it and reload it to try and remedy the problem, it sends me an error message. So...this is me trying to find a way around it. Hopefully you will get this notification that I put up a new chapter. Fingers crossed! Happy reading!


	26. Chapter 26

"Jonathan!" Clary shouts out. Only a second later does she hear heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs. Only three seconds have passed since she screamed out for him does Jonathan burst into the room. His hand is hovering over his gun that is tucked into the waist of his jeans. He looks worriedly at her and follows her eyes to where Jace is standing with his hands out.

"Did he hurt you; threaten you?" he asks her firmly. She scoots behind her brother a little to hide.

She was expecting Jonathan to look surprised and horrified and instantly pull his gun on Jace. Instead, he looks just the opposite of surprised. He looks like he was expecting Jace to be in her room. She looks back at Jace, still with a thrill of fear running through her, and sees his worried face staring at her. No, she takes that back. He looks like he is in pain. There is a fresh tear trying to escape from his right eye. "No." she finally answers her brother.

"Do you want me to make him leave?" Jonathan asks her. He's turned his eyes on Jace and they have fixed there with a hard glare. One word from her and he would kill him where he stands.

"Please, I'm begging you Clary, please listen to me." he asks her. "Your father let me in here."

"What?" she asks of no one in particular. "Why would he do that? You want me dead. You tried to have me killed yesterday."

"No, no, no." he says hurriedly. "That wasn't me. Please, Clary, let me explain."

Pure confusion settles over her. Why would her father let him in here after everything he's done to her in the past week? Surely he wouldn't put her in danger like that. Especially not Jonathan. He wouldn't let him anywhere near her if he thought he was a threat. "I can see how confused you are, Clary." Jonathan says to her, turning to look at her slightly behind his right shoulder. "Can I suggest you let him tell you what is going on? You know I wouldn't let him near you if I thought he was a threat to you. There's a lot we found out today and Jace practically begged father to let him be the one to tell you."

"Tell me what?" she says with a bit of annoyance to her voice.

"I think you should ask him." Jonathan says and nods towards Jace. Her eyes cut back over to Jace nervously and after a moment of studying him, she sees how broken he looks. His eyes are pleading with her to let him stay and hear him out but there is still that part of her that is angry and afraid of him. Scared that he really does want her dead and that this is all just a trick.

"If you want, I will be just on the other side of your door." Jonathan offers. She looks up at him and nods her head. He gives her a quick kiss on the top of her head and then looks over to Jace in warning as he slips out of the room. The door falls shut behind him and then they are alone. Clary is still pushed up against the wall while Jace is a good eight feet away from her across her room. "Thank you for giving me a chance to explain." he says to her with a twinge of pain in his tone.

"Why?" she asks him in a sort of whine as a tear readily escapes her eye. "Why did you send someone to kill me? I didn't kill your father. I don't know how many times I can tell you that. I thought you loved me."

"Oh god, Clary. I do love you. More than anything in the world." he pleads with her. His brows are furrowed in pain and worry and she can't understand why.

"Then why did you try to kill me!" she shouts angrily at him. A choked sob escapes her then.

"I didn't!" he says to her a little louder than his normal speaking voice. "It was Michael Wayland who ordered the hit on you. I had no clue about it. He did it behind my back."

She's suddenly taken back to when Alec called her earlier today. "Why are you doing this to me?" she asks as her voice hiccups while she tries to hold in her sobs that are trying to take her over. "Why are you feeding me the same story that Alec did earlier today? It didn't work then and it won't work now. I didn't fall for it."

She watches in surprise as Jace looks dumbfounded. Like it's the first time he's heard of this. "What?! Alec called you today?" he asks urgently. His eyes have turned serious and shocked and it takes her completely by surprise.

"Yes." she says trying to hold onto her composure. She swallows past the huge lump in her throat before she continues while Jace looks like he is hanging on her every word. "He called and told me that you were having your doubts that it was me who killed your father. He said that it wasn't you who ordered the hit on me and that you wanted to meet with me in the park where we had our first date. When I asked to hear it from your own lips, he got angry and defensive and said some shitty things about me. I heard someone in the background ask if 'I was falling for it' and then he said that if I 'wasn't going to fall for it, he could go to where I was and do the job.'" As she speaks, her anger from earlier finds her and she begins to growl her words. "When I realized that it was a set up, he started saying nasty things to me and told me that you hate me and wants me dead just like he wants me dead."

When she stops, and takes a survey of Jace's face, he looks like he is going to be sick. His eyes have dropped to the floor and his face has paled considerably since she started talking. One of his hands has come up and partially covered his face. "I can't believe he did that." Jace says quietly, like he was saying it to himself and not her.

She has no idea what to do in this moment. Jace isn't saying anything or even looking at her. All Clary can hear is her heart beating in her ears and her heavy breathing. "I'm so sorry, Clary." she hears him finally say. He raises his head up and the look in his eyes is the most sincere look of apology she's ever seen from anyone ever before. "I'm so _fucking sorry_ for everything. I'm sorry for not believing you about my father. I'm sorry I ever doubted our love, even for one split second. I'm sorry I listened to Alec and not you. I'm sorry that Wayland tried to have you killed behind my back. I'm sorry for Sebastian getting hurt and almost dying." He pauses for a brief moment. "And I'm sorry that I didn't kill Alec when I had the chance. He's obviously not going to let this grudge he has against you go and I've put you in danger because I let him go."

She's frozen on the spot. What he has just said is replaying over and over again in her head and she is quickly trying to make sense of it all. "I've failed you in so many ways that I fear I will never make it up to you." he continues. "But I will spend every second of every day of my life trying my hardest to if you'll let me."

"Whoa, whoa." she says raising her hand up to him to get him to stop speaking. "Wait just a second. I'm so confused right now." Her eyes close for a brief second in concentration as she tries to recall everything he just said. "What was the first thing you said about your father?"

He huffs out a very tiny and humorless breathy release of air from his mouth as the smallest of smiles touches one corner of his mouth. "I know it wasn't you who poisoned my father. I'm ashamed to say now that I ever thought it _was_ you in the first place. I should have known better but I was just so hurt and angry at the world...but that's still not an excuse."

"How do you know it wasn't me?" she asks him. This seems like this is all just a crazy dream right now and he couldn't be here, in her room, saying these things right now.

"Aline." he answers simply. "I asked her to do some investigating and she very quickly found out who did it." She watches as Jace's demeanor changes a little. His face grows unbearably serious and hurt at the same time. "Alec didn't know that the guy he bought the cyanide from was a new informant of ours."

She can't help but suck in a small surprised breath. Her eyes widen and her small hand comes up to cover her mouth for a moment. "Alec?" she says in astonishment. "But why would he do that?"

"When I confronted him, I found out he was jealous. He said that he was in love with me and I guess he figured that he had to get rid of you because I was going...because he saw how much I love you." He swallows roughly. "He figured that I wouldn't doubt 'the evidence' that you and your family killed him and that we would, at the very least, break up with me hating you."

Clary drops her gaze from Jace's and starts to replay every interaction she's ever had with Alec. From the moment he laid eyes on her, she knew that he didn't like her. He immediately called her every name in the book and practically demanded that Jace break up with her. When he saw that he wouldn't do that, he made nice. She tried to ignore all of the pointed stares she would get from Alec every time Jace wasn't looking and just shrugged it off as him being worried about his best friend. She had no clue that he hated her so much that he would actually kill Jace's father just so he could frame her for it and break them up. He's fucking crazy. "That's insane." she remarks quietly as she stares at the floor. Her brain is running at ninety miles a minute as she tries to put all of the pieces together.

She sees from the corner of her eye that he takes a step closer to her and her head snaps up to look at him. He freezes where he is and looks apologetically at her. "Clary..."

"What about the hit?" she asks him as her voice is getting louder with her anger from earlier. "Two men tried to kill me yesterday. They walked up and said that they had a message from you and then started shooting." Her eyes have turned into slits now. She points up to the cut on her cheek. "This is where a bullet _GRAZED MY FACE_! If Sebastian hadn't pushed me out of the way and stepped in front of the gun for me, I would be dead right now! He took two bullets for me and almost _died_! Jordan was shot _in the arm_! Sebastian was there to protect me when it should have been _you_!"

"I know, Clary. God, I know it should have been me." he pleads with her. "I was so upset after finding out about the cyanide and thinking it was you that I went into self destruct mode. I broke everything I could in my place and drank every scrap of liquor available to me. I knew I was in no shape to run the business so I told Alec to tell Michael that he should take over for a few days till I could get my head straight. I can see now that it was one of the worst mistakes of my life to do that. He took advantage of it and tried to have you killed because he knew that I would never do it."

Jace takes a deep breath and slowly takes one step closer to her. This time, she allows it. She doesn't recoil or give him a look to stay back. "Clary, I would never dream of hurting you." He shakes his head in frustration that is clearly directed at himself. "But that's all that I've done this past week. When I found out what Michael did, I was so furious. I beat him unconscious and then killed the two men that shot at you and all of that was before I found out it _wasn't you_ who killed my father. I turned Michael over to your father this morning for going behind my back to have you killed."

He furrows his brows angrily at himself and then tugs at his hair. "I've completely ruined everything and I have no clue how to fix it. I hate myself so much for messing up what we have...or had...have...I don't know. Ugh!" His jaw clenches for a moment before he lets out a long breath and his shoulders sag.

Clary, who has been watching and listening to him this whole time, finally starts to let herself process everything he's said. First of all, he knows that it wasn't her who killed her father. It was Alec. The fact that he now knows that is enough to send her heart into a sprint.

Secondly, he didn't order the hit on her. He didn't even know about it and when he did find out about it, he killed the men who shot at her and gave his own godfather, which she knows he loves like and uncle, to her father and brother to try and make amends. Tears are now running in a torrent down her face. She slowly looks back up to Jace and sees that he too is crying. Strong and proud Jace Herondale is crying. And it's not just a soft roll of tears down his cheeks, it is a torrent of them, just like hers.

"Please Clary. I am begging you to forgive me." he says softly to her and takes another step closer to her. She stays where she is, watching him, as she tries to sort out the jumble of emotions raging through her at the moment. "God knows I don't deserve to be forgiven but here I am, asking for it, because I can't live without you. I'm broken without you."

He takes one more step and he is now only a few feet away from her. "You, Clary, are the love of my life, my soulmate. As long as I am alive, you are the _only_ woman that I will ever be able to love. There could never be anyone else in a million years that would come close to making me feel the way I do for you and you alone. I don't want to be apart anymore. Being away from you literally almost killed me. I would have given myself alcohol poisoning if Alec hadn't taken all of my liquor out of my place when I was passed out." He takes another step closer and now he is within arms reach of her.

She just watches as more tears fall from his eyes while hers start to slow. His lip is quivering and she can see just how broken he is. She briefly wonders if her face looks the same way. She's felt broken and hurt for the past week without him. Someone tried their best to destroy what they had and it's now up to them to see if they can fix it.

"I don't want this to break us." he says quietly. "I can't let him win. I can't let him take away from me everything that I love. I won't go down without a fight but I can only do that if you give me another chance. I swear on everything that I have ever loved that I will never fail you again, ever. Just...let me prove it to you. Please, take me back."

Without her telling it to do so, her hand raises up from beside her side and flattens out. She pulls it back and then it is flying at his face. A loud crack resonates through the room. Jace doesn't even looked the least bit surprised that she slapped him. In fact, he looks like he was expecting it and that he believes he deserved it. His face turns back up to hers with a look of embarrassment on it. "You bastard." she says brokenly. "You turned your back on me and believed others over me; believed the person who _actually killed_ your father. Do you know how much that hurt?" she asks him quietly. "You truly believed that I was capable of killing your father; that I was this heartless scheming bitch that played and used you. Did my words and actions while we were together mean nothing to you? Did you think I was lying when we were in bed together and I would look up at you and whisper how much I desperately loved you as we made love? Did you really think that is who I am? Because if you did, then I don't ever want to see your face again."

He swallows roughly as his eyes lock with hers, refusing to let them go from his gaze. "There were moments when I would start to doubt what you had said or done or convince myself that the way you looked at me was faked but...everything in me, every fiber of my being would instantly recoil against those thoughts. Not because they were unpleasant or hurtful to think about but because no matter how hard everyone, and even I, myself, tried, I could never once truly believe that what we had was faked; that you were the horrible person everyone around me said you were. I could never reconcile the person who I know you to be with the person that everyone said killed my father and hurt me so terribly. I think that's why I stayed drunk for the first forty-eight hours after finding out he was murdered and the evidence pointed to you. I couldn't get those two versions of you to coexist together in my head and it was confusing and painful. I had so much anger flowing through me at someone getting the better of my strong father...I needed you so much and I was so stupid to not see what was really happening. Someone had framed you and I should have seen it for what it was from the start. I won't ever try to make excuses for my actions then because there are none."

Clary's heart is beating so hard in her chest that she's sure that Jace can hear it. His unbroken eye contact is allowing her to see the truth in his words and she is trying her best not to let her walls down, still not knowing exactly how she feels towards him in this moment.

His eyes then turn unbearably soft while his voice turns loving and fervent. Truth ringing from every syllable. "I, Jonathan Herondale, cannot live without you, Clary Morgenstern. I would rather _die_ than walk out of this room knowing that I could never be with you ever again. I've already lost so many people that I love and that hurts so damn much, but I know that I can live without them. But living without you...it just can't be done. Knowing that I had destroyed the only thing that I can't live without would be unendurable. You see, you are it for me. I was living only a half life before I met you. When you came into my life, all beauty and brains and fire, completely knocking me off my feet and throwing what I thought I knew about being happy into chaos, I was a goner. You are a part of my soul now, whether you like it or not, and I cannot live without my soul. I want you, Clary. I want us. I want it all. With you. _Only_ you. Forever."

There are so many things that she wants to say to him but with the way he looking at her right now, like she is the only star in the blackest of nights, breaks her resolve. "Oh, Jace." she says softly and then her hand is coming up to wipe away a tear that is rolling down his cheek. His eyes close at her touch and he lets out a long sigh of contentment as he leans into her hand. Seeing that makes her heart retake it's place in her chest, finally moving back there from where it had taken up residence in the pit of her stomach. Her lips move of their own accord when she then says, "Kiss me, Jace."

His eyes fly open wide in surprise and for a split second, she sees them turn a smoldering gold and then he is lunging for her mouth. His lips crash against hers with a soft sort of force. One of his arms slips around her waist while his other hand finds it's way into her hair at the nape of her neck. Her arms that are crushed between the two of them slowly start to slide their way up and around his neck as her body starts to relax under his touch. "Clary." he whispers with such ardor when he pulls back for a second for air. When his lips touch hers again, she lets herself go.

Her fingers dive into his hair and grab hold as she presses their faces together. A deep groan comes from Jace's throat as she opens her mouth to let his tongue in. Their tongues begin to dance in perfect sync with each other as they desperately cling to one another. She can't seem to get close enough to him as she presses herself against him with all of her force. Her heart is soaring high above her now as they kiss. It feels like she can actually breathe again and the feeling is purely euphoric.

Jace's hand clenches the fabric of her shirt on the small of her back as she begins to slow their kiss. Their ragged breathing is mixing together in the small space between the two of them as both of them pull back and rest their foreheads against each other's. Their eyes are closed while they hold tightly to each other. "I've missed you so damn much." she says to him.

"I've missed you too. More than I could ever explain." he replies while still holding her tightly to him.

"You broke my heart, Jace." she says as she leans her head back and looks up at him. "You broke it and I've never been hurt so badly in my life. I could barely make it through each day."

He winces like he is in pain, scrunching his eyes closed for a moment before opening them and locking them with hers. "I know. I felt the same way. I'm so sorry. I know I'll never be able to say sorry enough to make up for it but I'm sure as hell going to try. Every moment of every day."

He tilts his head forward again and places a soft yet desperate kiss on her lips. When he is done, his hand comes forward as he pulls his head back and his thumb ghosts across the cut under her eye as he eyes look at it with a look of severe remorse. "Does it hurt?" he asks.

"Not really." she tells him. Her hand comes up and grabs his hand that is on her face, pulling it away so he won't dwell on her injury. "I got lucky. Sebastian is the one who got the shit end of...well, everything." She then motions down to her blood soaked clothes and his eyes follow. "You'd better be glad he lived. I don't think I would have forgiven you so easily, or at all, if he had died."

Jace has the decency to look ashamed. "I know. I'm so glad that he's going to be okay. I know you care about him."

"I do." she replies ardently. "He's been too good to me. Better than I deserve."

"That's not true..." Jace starts to say but it cut off by the look in her eyes. The last thing she wants right now is someone telling her that she is worth all of the heartache and trouble she's put Sebastian through.

"Listen, I'm going to go take a shower. I can feel his dried blood all over me and I just really want it off at this point. I had carved out a few hours to cry myself crazy because I thought you wanted me dead so that should free up some time in my schedule so we can talk some more." She gives a tense and humorless chuckle as she drops her eyes from his.

"I'll still be here when you get out." he tells her. She's grateful that he didn't ask to join her because she doesn't think she's ready for that yet. There is still a lot to talk about and a lot of issues and emotions to sort though about the past week.

He looks tentatively at her for a moment before leaning down and kissing her softly a few more times while she sighs with relief at the feel of his lips on hers again. It just feels so good to be able to kiss him again. When she pulls away from him and takes a step back towards her bathroom, he almost looks like he doesn't want to let her go, even though she knows she looks like hell and definitely needs to clean herself up. "I can't believe my father and brother let you in here." she tells him with a small chuckle.

He gives an almost humorless laugh back at her. "It wasn't easy to convince him to let me to be the one to tell you everything, _b_ _elieve me_. Especially when I asked him if I could wait here to tell you." His eyes widen with a memory and she smiles at him and lets out a breathy laugh.

"It's probably because you are so charming and handsome that they let you."

"Not exactly." she hears her brother yell from the other side of her door that they are right next to and both of their eyes jerk over to it before they laugh lightly.

"Go away, Jon. It's all good now. I don't need you anymore." she says back to him, raising her voice a little.

"You know where I'll be if you do need me." he calls back and then she hears his footsteps heading away from her room and down the hall towards his. She turns then and walks into her bathroom and shuts the door behind her. She turns the water on in the shower and as it is heating up, she chances a look in the mirror. It's the first time she's seen her reflection and her eyes widen with horror.

The cut where the bullet grazed her face is more substantial than she thought and a sudden thrill of fear runs through her when she realizes that it's probably going to scar. She curses under her breath and then looks at her hair that looks like she stood in a wind tunnel all day and then slept for hours on it. There are small, dried drops of blood on her chest that probably came from the cut on her face and her shirt is a complete throw away as well as her jeans. There is absolutely no way to get out that much blood from any fabric.

When steam starts to rise from the shower, she strips down and steps in, reveling in the warm cascade of water down her tired and grimy body. She closes her eyes and lets her head fall back into the water as she lets her mind relax and organize her thoughts about what just happened out in her room. Everything. Stephen dying, finding out he was really murdered, Jace accusing her of doing it, their separation, the hit Michael Wayland ordered, finding out it was Alec who did it...

That piece of information, above all else, is what throws her off the most. She knew that Alec didn't like her but she never thought that he would be capable of going to such extremes to get rid of her. She also never knew that he was in love with Jace. It was clear that him and Magnus loved each other when she saw them together...but looking back on it now, he was always so guarded when Magnus would try to show him affection or when he would say that he loved him. That was probably because he was in love with Jace and was still holding out hope that somehow they would get together. That idea is absolutely absurd to her. Jace is _very clearly_ straight and in love with her. But then again, love can make you do crazy things. Things that you would have never done under any other circumstances.

When she realizes that she's been standing there under the falling water for a long while, she turns off her mind for the time being and scrubs her body clean, focusing on each task, one at a time to keep her mind busy. By the time she's stepping out of the shower, she's washed her body twice and had to deep condition her hair because of all the stubborn knots that she couldn't work out of it after doing her usual routine.

She wraps a towel around her waist and wrings her hair out before opening the door and stepping back into her room. Her eyes quickly find Jace sitting on the edge of her bed looking very tense. His head snaps up and she is able to see just how nervous he is. He must be worried that she's changed her mind about everything or is unsure of what to do next. "I didn't bring any pajamas in the bathroom with me." she says to him and reaches out for her dresser next to her closet. He nods his head in understanding and then looks very uncertain as to what he should do. He ends up just looking in the opposite direction of her to give her some privacy and she smiles at him being so unsure about himself.

Clary quickly slips on a camisole and some sleep shorts and wraps the towel around her hair and squeezes it trying to get all of the excess water out of it. "I'm dressed now." she tells him with a smile on her lips. He turns back around and she says, "I don't know why you turned around. It's not like you haven't seen everything I've got before."

He smiles warmly at her and shakes his head in what she assumes is disbelief. "Can you hand me that hair tie?" she asks walking over to the other side of the bed from where he is and sitting down. He reaches over to the nightstand on his side of the bed and laughs for some reason as he picks it up and looks at it for a minute before handing it to her. "Thanks."

"No problem." he replies. "I was just thinking about me finding one of your hair ties at my place and for some insane reason right after you left, I picked it up in anger or grief, I'm not sure, and stretched it till it snapped. I guess I wanted to hurt something of yours."

"Well you sure showed me." she replies with a serious tone as she starts to braid her wet hair down over her right shoulder. He can't help but laugh at her words.

When his laughing stills, Clary lays down on her bed, facing Jace, and pats the space next to her. Jace takes the hint and kicks off his shoes and slides his jacket off before laying down next to her still wearing his jeans a thin black sweater. Her hand reaches across the distance between them and Jace's hand comes over and takes it tightly in his as they look at each other. "I can't believe Alec did all of this." she says lowly to him. "I just...I thought he would never be capable of anything like this."

Jace blanches for a moment before his face turns cold. "Me either. I was in complete denial when Aline told me. I told her that she was lying and threatened to kill her but she wouldn't let up. She just kept telling me that the informant was sure of it and even provided part of his licence plate number to her. It turned out it was a car that belongs to his father. I ended up going to Bat's bar and paid him to close the bar. I went there because I thought I could hide there and have some time to process everything by myself. I came up with so many scenarios where it wasn't Alec who did it and it was some crazy look alike that had done it but I knew that it was insane to think that."

Jace pauses for a moment and swallows roughly. Clary's other hand comes up and pushes some hair out of his face that had fallen into his eye and he visibly relaxes at her touch. His eyes fall closed and then he is talking again. "Bat saw how torn up I was and thought he was doing me a favor when he called Alec."

Clary sucks in a small and almost imperceptible surprised breath. "When he showed up, I played dumb. Told him that I hadn't heard anything from Aline. I don't know why I didn't just tell him that I knew it was him right then." He shakes his head and then opens his eyes back up and looks up at her again. "I guess a part of me just wanted to pretend he was my best friend again just one more time. He then started to say that I should just accept that it was you who killed my father and that you weren't who I was supposed to be with...and then he kissed me."

"What?" Clary says with quiet surprise.

Jace just continues without responding to her. "He told me how he was in love with me and how we were meant to be together. He then started to say how you weren't right for me and that he was and...I just lost it. I started yelling and he started hurling insult after insult about you to me and then...I just couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him. I know I should have for killing my father and ripping us apart but...I just couldn't do it."

Clary starts to feel so sad for Jace as his face starts to betray just how much Alec's betrayal hurt him. "It's okay." she whispers to him.

"No, it's not okay." he tells her, his voice growing very firm. His tone is laced with anger that is clearly directed at himself. "I should have just done it then but instead, I told him that he had twelve hours to get out of town and then I would start looking for him. I should have..." he pauses, taking a deep breath to calm himself as his anger grows. "I should have just killed him then. If I had known that he was going to stick around and call you to try and lure you to him so he could kill you..." His eyes scrunch shut and she can see the pain and anger in his features that is both directed at himself and at Alec.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about him getting anywhere near me anymore." she tries to tell him reassuringly. "Once I tell my father about the phone call today, he will not only have you looking for him but my family as well."

"But he is my responsibility to take care of." He opens his eyes back up and looks at Clary. "I failed you again and I won't dare ask your forgiveness for this particular error in my judgement. But I will swear to you, Clary, that I will keep you safe from him and that I will find him and make him pay for what he's done. Not only what he's done to me and my family but to you and yours as well."

"I know you will, Jace." she whispers to him. She juts her chin out to him and he leans in for a quick and chaste kiss; just a soft brush of lips. "How is Izzy taking the news?" Clary asks him. His eyes turn sad and turn down away from her and to their joined hands between them. "I'm not really sure." he answers her. "When I came by a few hours ago, Jonathan hadn't told her yet that it was Alec. I sat down with her and told her and she didn't take the news well. She started shouting that there was no way it could be him and that I had certifiably lost my mind. When I told her that he admitted it to me, she just started crying and asked me if there was any way I could spare him after she composed herself for a moment. I just shook my head no and she seemed to understand and didn't ask me again. She just got up and walked away with Jonathan following closely behind her. I've heard her crying coming from his room on and off all night while I've been waiting here."

"Poor Izzy." she says softly and mostly to herself. "I guess that is why her eyes were so red and puffy when I got home. I mean, this whole situation is just _so_ fucked up. There doesn't seem to be any good solution to any of it."

"And it was all because Alec was jealous." Jace says with an edge to his voice. "He created all of this. Every bad thing that's happened is because he couldn't deal with me being so happy and it not be with him. He's ruined so much."

"Hey." Clary says softly and reaches out to touch his face. He looks up from their hands and their eyes meet. "At least you figured everything out. I'm glad that you, even though all of the evidence said so, didn't think I would or could kill your father and hurt you like that. If you hadn't, we wouldn't be here together right now. We can't let him win. We can't let him break us. We are too good together and I don't want to let us go without one hell of a fight."

"I wouldn't even let go of you then." Jace says with a half of a smile. "I don't care what could ever possibly happen between us. I'd still want to be with you. You've got me completely whipped and I'm proud to admit it because that means that I am yours."

"We've got a lot of rebuilding to do, Jace." she admits to him. "While I'm still madly in love with you and want to be with you, I don't know if I am ready to forgive you completely just yet. You know how I am when I'm upset. I need my space and some time to get over it."

"I know." Jace says somberly. "And I'm ready to do anything you want me to to rebuild the trust between us that I destroyed. I'll patiently wait however long it takes to earn it back while doing everything in power to prove to you that I'll never doubt you again and that I am worthy of your trust." She doesn't know what to say to that so she just remains silent. It's what she wanted to hear but there doesn't seem to be anything to say in reply to that. "As for now," he says after a quiet moment, "I'm beyond thrilled that you are allowing me to lay here and hold your hand. It's more than I had hoped for after how I behaved."

"Well, I am a terribly selfish person." she says. "I've missed you so much and now that I have you back, I don't want to let you go, literally or figuratively. I know now what it's like to be without you and my whole body revolts against the idea of not being near you. It hurts too much and I shudder away from anything that could bring on that kind of blinding pain again."

"I know exactly what you mean." Jace reaches out and his fingers lightly skim down her face. "I feel like I am alive again after being in the worst waking coma of my life. My heart has found it's place back inside of my chest because when you left, you took it with you. I was so terrified that I would never get it back."

Clary scoots forward and closer to Jace, her body finally telling her just how incredibly sleep deprived she is by making her eyes droop to the point where they almost stay closed with each blink. He brings an arm around her back and pulls her close to him as Clary curls up in a ball into his chest and tucks her head under his chin while his body curls around hers. His warm arms encircle her and she takes a long deep breath and fills her nose with the smell of him that she's missed so much. "Hold me till I fall asleep." she says quietly into his chest.

"Always." he replies and hugs her even closer into him. "Always."

* * *

Clary starts to stir as a bright beam of light pours in from her window. She is still tucked into Jace's chest and turns her head into him some more to get away from it. "Morning." she hears his deep voice say. His hand that is on her back starts to rub soothingly over her camisole.

"What time is it?" she asks him with a gruff voice.

"Last time I looked about ten minutes ago it was almost eleven."

Clary's eyes fly wide with surprise as she pulls back from him a little and looks up to his face. "Why didn't you wake me? It's late."

"Because you needed the sleep and you were sleeping so soundly. I didn't want to wake you up."

"How long have you been awake?"

He shrugs his shoulders as much as he can while laying on his side and says, "I don't know, maybe since eight?"

"Jace." she says in a chastising tone. "You've been laying here for three hours? That's crazy."

"No it's not." he says down to her as his eyes turn darker and loving. "I loved holding you and watching you sleep. I'll never take it for granted again. I'd stay here all day just holding and watching you if that's what you wanted to do and it'd be the best day of my life."

She blushes a little and shakes her head at him. "You're ridiculous." she tells him.

"No I'm not. I'm the luckiest man in the world because you're in my arms and not anyone else's."

Clary's thoughts are abruptly pulled back to Sebastian. She told him she'd be back to see him today. "I'd better get up." she tells Jace and starts to sit up. After a long stretch, she kicks off the blanket that Jace wrapped them in after she fell asleep and rolls out of bed. Jace stands as well and rotates the arm that she was laying on a few times while he winces. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." he reassures her. "It's just my arm's been asleep for the last hour and I'm trying to get the blood flowing back to it again."

"You know you could have moved it." she tells him.

"No way. I was blissfully happy holding you there and I didn't want to let you go." His eyes are locked with her and she sees the earnestness in them when he looks at her while he says that. She just shakes her head at him as he slips his shoes on because he is still fully clothed.

She reaches up and touches her braided hair and feels that it's dry. She pulls the hair tie out and starts to run her fingers through it, her hair falling in soft fat waves around her shoulders and down her back. "My God, you're so beautiful." Jace says fervently as he walks around the bed to her. His eyes are heavy with love for her and she feels her heart skip at beat at that look. When he reaches her, he looks down and asks, "Can I kiss you?"

All she can do is nod her head and then he is leaning down and pressing his lips ever so gently against hers while his hands come up and cup her face on either side. When he pulls back, his eyes are closed with contentment for a moment before opening back up and smiling lazily at her. "I should probably get dressed." she tells him. He smiles at her again and steps aside so she can pass him and she moves to her closet. She flicks on the light and pulls down a pair of jeans and a fitted v-neck long sleeved plain navy blue shirt. Facing away from the door of her closet, she lifts her camisole over her head and reaches for a bra next to her on a shelf and hears Jace groan lightly under his breath at the sight of her bare back. He definitely isn't looking away like he did last night.

She slips on her bra before sliding her shorts down her legs and stepping out of them. She can feel Jace's eyes burning a hole into her as she slides her jeans up her legs and slips the shirt over her head. When she pulls her hair out of her shirt and it falls down her back, Jace says, "You're so damn perfect. So beautiful." His voice is surprisingly a lot closer than she was expecting and turns around to find him standing at the door of her closet, leaning against it with his left shoulder while his hands are tucked into his front pockets.

Clary takes two small steps then to close the distance between them and slides her hands around his torso, tucking her arms in between him and his arms. She tilts her head up to him and sees how much he wants to kiss her, yet how unsure he is as to if she would want him to or even allow it. "It's okay. You can kiss me. You don't have to ask every time you want to. I'm yours, remember?"

His hands come out of his pockets and one goes to skim along the length of her face while the other wraps around her waist. His lips are unbearably soft against hers and she can feel the love pouring from him as she presses her mouth harder against his. Her heart jumps into her throat, just like it always has every time she kisses him, and she sighs into his mouth as she opens her lips and lets him in. His tongue brushes softly against her own for a moment before he pulls back and whispers, "I love you so much, Clary. _So damn much_."

"I love you too, Jace." Her voice is heavy with truth and his lips turn up softly into a smile.

"Say it again. For way too long I thought I would never hear those words from your lips ever again. God knows I don't deserve to."

"I love you." She whispers as she places a kiss on his cheek. "I love you." Another kiss on his jaw next to his ear. "I love you." Her eyes close as she places a sweet kiss on his lips. "You'll never hear me say anything truer than 'I love you, Jace' for as long as I live."

"Ditto." he says and she can't help but smile big as he quotes one of her most favorite movies. She reaches up again on her toes and gives him one more kiss before saying, "Give me five minutes in the bathroom and then we can get something to eat downstairs. I'm starving."

"Okay." he says and steps aside to let her pass. After running a brush through her hair and applying some light makeup that consisted of concealer, eyeliner, mascara, and a soft pink lip balm, she steps out and he smiles beautifully at her. She slips on her favorite pair of brown boots and takes Jace's hand before he opens her bedroom door for her and steps out and into the hallway.

The house is quiet for the most part and she can only hear her father's and Jonathan's voices faintly coming from somewhere down on the first floor. "So you worked everything out with my dad and brother?" she checks with him before taking him downstairs.

He smiles at her worried look and kisses her forehead. "I did. Although I have the distinct feeling that if I so much as breathe in a way that bothers you, your dad and brother won't hesitate to kill me where I stand."

She lets out a decent chuckle before saying, "I don't doubt that for a second." She holds tight to his hand and pulls him down the staircase and turns right to head into the kitchen where the food and her father and brother are seated at the island. When she rounds the corner holding Jace's hand, her father's eyes narrow for a moment over her shoulder at Jace before turning back down to her. "Good morning Jonathan. Good morning Valentine." Jace says in his deep voice.

"That's Mr. Morgenstern to you." Valentine chides him. "You'll have to work your way up to calling me by my first name again."

"Fair enough Mr. Morgenstern." Jace replies easily and without a hint of malice or annoyance in his tone. In fact, there is a smile on his lips and he actually sounds eager to comply to her father's demand.

"Morning dick-face." Jonathan mutters and Clary picks up an apple sitting on the counter and throws it at his face. He, of course, catches it with amazing ease without blinking an eye. "Be nice." she tells him and he visibly grimaces before taking a deep breath and relaxing his face. "Morning." he says through tight lips.

Jace, either pretending he had never insulted him or deciding to let it go, just smiles a genuine smile at him and says "Morning." back to her brother. She suspects that Jace is going to kill her family with kindness and the patience of a saint while earning their trust back that he won't hurt Clary again. It's a smart move on his part.

She quickly grabs some instant oatmeal from the cabinet and starts to make her and Jace a bowl. "I got a call while I was at the hospital yesterday from Alec." she says as she measures the correct amount of water.

"What?" Jonathan says with surprise and a hint of anger.

"He called and told me that Jace wanted to meet with me because he was having doubts about me killing his father." Jace moves to stand closer to her and puts his hand on the small of her back. "When I questioned him about it, I heard someone in the background ask if I was coming or not and if I wasn't, if Alec wanted him to come 'do me' wherever I was. I'm assuming that 'do me' means kill me. When I didn't fall for it, he started saying some pretty nasty things to me and telling me that Jace hated me and wanted me to die." She takes a calming breath trying to reign in her emotions that the memory of thinking those things were true brings on. "So...I'm assuming that he's still hanging around somewhere here in New York, waiting for his chance."

She looks up to her dad and brother once she's done stirring her oatmeal into the water and sees nothing but barely contained rage on her brother's face and a calculated thoughtful anger on her father's face. Jonathan's eyes then turn up to Jace. "I thought you said your men were on it and were going to find him."

"They are looking but after Clary told me that last night, I am going to redouble my efforts and put every man I have on it. I haven't talked to anyone yet because...well...I was trying to put all of my attention into Clary last night."

"Do I have to put my people on it as well?" Valentine says in a way that is suggesting that he is incompetent in what he does.

"I don't you think you should, sir." Jace says and Jonathan's eyebrows shoot up to his hair line in surprise that he would say that to his father; telling him not to do something. "Hear me out." Jace says, raising his hands up in a sign of patience. "I think we have the upper hand right now. The only people who know the truth about everything is my mother and the people in this room and my most trusted group of elites that are supposed to be finding him. If he still thinks that we haven't communicated with one another and that he can use the animosity between us against each other, then that would make him more vulnerable. I suggest that we fake my death. Make it look like Jonathan got to me before I could explain everything to you. That would make him beyond angry and hurt and he would be more...reckless and sloppy. He would want to strike out against Clary, who he sees as the problem that started everything, and we would be able to find him easier."

"So you're suggesting that we make him so angry that he will be desperate to kill my daughter? You're willing to use her as bait?!" Valentine says as his voice raises with outrage.

"God no!" Jace says with horror. "We hire a look alike and parade her around to her collection spots."

Both Morgenstern men relax enough then that she feels it's safe to turn her back on them and put their bowls of oatmeal in the microwave. "That just might work." she hears Jonathan say.

"If that doesn't work, then I will find him." Valentine says like a deadly promise. "No one threatens my family and gets away with it."

"That is something that you and I will always agree on." Jace says. "No one threatens Clary or my family and lives long enough to tell about it."

"Except Alexander Lightwood." Jonathan says while narrowing his eyes at Jace a fraction. "Apparently, you'll let them go if they're your friends."

Jace actually flinches a little at his words. "That was a severe lapse in judgement on my part that will never happen again. I've learned my lesson."

"Good." Valentine says. "I'd hate to be the one to have to teach that lesson to you if anything happens to my daughter at his hands."

"I would too." Jace says after a particularly hard swallow.

Clary breaks into their conversation then by clearing her throat. "Now that that is settled, after I eat my breakfast, lunch, whatever it is, I'm going to go back to the hospital to see Sebastian."

"What?" Jace says indignantly while her father and brother exclaim at the same time, "No you're not!"

"Excuse me?" Clary says with annoyance. "The last time I checked, I was a grown-ass woman and could do whatever the hell I wanted. I'm going to pretend that none of you said what you just did and go on about my day. If we are going to try and convince Alec that we are still at odds with each other, that means doing what I would have done if Jace hadn't been here last night. And anyway, I'd still go even if the whole world knew that we had made up with each other. Sebastian took two bullets for me and is lying in the hospital and I fully plan to be by his side as of now. I'm sure that Aunt Elodie is bone tired and needs to go home to shower so I'm going to go relieve her for a while. It's literally the least I can do."

All three men look like they desperately want to argue with her but the look on her face and the fact that she is right stops them from doing so. She then turns to Jace and levels her eyes at him. "I know that you aren't thrilled that I'm going to be tending after my long term ex-boyfriend who is still in love with me but you are just going to have to deal with it."

Jace smooths out his face and says, "Of course. Anything to make you happy." Normally, his words would have sounded patronizing and maybe a little indignant but now, she can hear nothing but truth and ease and resignation in it. He really means what he said.

"But..." Jace says surprising her, "...you will let your father put as many men on you as he wants without complaining and let my unknowns be there as well. That's all I'm asking."

She rolls her eyes. "Fair enough I guess." Just then the microwave dings and she turns to grab their food from the microwave and scarfs it down before heading to the hospital, leaving Jace with her father and brother so they can get on with the plans. If Jace is going to be 'dead', he needs to be well hidden and where else better to hide than at the Morgenstern mansion? She just prays that they don't kill each other while she is gone.

* * *

 _Clace is back!_

 _Only one, maybe two, more chapters till the story is finished! Also, I'm trying to figure out what to write next. My thoughts are maybe a cross over type one where I take TMI characters and the plot from Everything, Everything and put them in it. I'd love a 'long distance' Clace story where they are far apart yet so close. What'd ya think?_

 _Thanks a billion for reading and please don't forget to follow and review and tell me what you think!_


	27. Chapter 27

_Sorry it took so long for an update. Our leader, Cassandra Clare, came out with the new Dark Artifices book and I couldn't stop reading! Jules and Emma for life! When I was done reading, I was emotionally distraught and it took me a while to recover. If you haven't read it yet, READ IT!_

* * *

Clary stepped off the elevator and was immediately met with Jordan. Her eyes widened with surprise for just a moment before she threw her arms around his neck. "Jordan. Are you okay?" She pulls away from him and looks down at his arm that is hanging in a sling.

"Yeah. I told you I'd be fine. The bullet just went straight through my arm. Other than it being sore as a mother fucker, I'm fine. Maia is the one making me wear the sling."

"Good." she replies to him as her hands smooth over his injured arm. "I'm glad she's making you wear it. What are you doing here anyway? Don't tell me you're on duty. You need to be home resting."

"I'm not." he says. "I came to have the wound checked again and wanted to see how Sebastian was doing before I went home."

"How is he today?" she asks him.

His eyebrows raise in surprise. "He's doing surprising well for someone who almost died. He almost seems happy."

Clary bites the inside of her cheek nervously and drops eye contact with him. She's almost positive that the reason he is so happy is her fault. When she left yesterday night, she could feel something changing between them. Something that she had never felt before and it was strange and exciting and scary. But that was before she got home and found Jace in her room and he explained everything. She'll have to tell him about it. She can trust him.

"What's the matter Clary?" Jordan asks her lowly, dipping his head down to her level.

"Just...go to my place when you tonight for dinner. My dad and I will explain everything." she tells him with a serious look before her eyes dart to the men that surround them. She can tell he wants to bombard her with questions but just nods his head at her instead, understanding that she can't talk about whatever it is right now with so many people around.

"I will but you have to promise me that you'll be careful. You really shouldn't be running around with Herondale trying to kill you, but knowing you, you couldn't be kept away right now no matter what your father said or did. You can be scarier than him when you don't get your way."

She gives him a timid smile before reaching up and kissing him on his cheek and pressing the down button for him. "I'm perfectly safe." she tells him. "You know my dad wouldn't let me out of the house if he were at all concerned that I could be in danger. No matter how scary I can be, he would tie me up and lock me in a cage if he wanted to keep me safe." The elevator chimes with it's arrival and she moves aside and lets him step in. "I'll see you soon. Tell Maia to come over tonight with you. There is so much I want to tell her."

"I will. I'll see you later. Be careful." he replies.

"I will. Bye." The elevator doors close and she turns and heads down the hall. There are still men guarding his room and she shrugs off her father's men when she gets to the door. She taps lightly on the door and hears Aunt Elodie say to come in. She quickly smooths down her navy blue shirt and fiddles with the multi-colored scarf she threw on before running her fingers through her hair and opening the door. Aunt Elodie is the first to see her and she smiles a loving smile at her.

"Clary." she says as way of greeting. "I was wondering when you would show up."

Clary steps further into the room and is finally able to see Sebastian. The smile he is wearing when she comes around the corner from the door is as bright as the sun. "Sorry it's so late." she tells her, looking back to her. "I guess I was more tired than I thought I was. I only woke up an hour ago." She looks at the clock and sees that it is five after twelve.

"You definitely needed the rest, darling." she says. "As naturally beautiful as you are, you looked like death warmed over when you left."

"Aunt Elodie." Sebastian says chastising her, and cuts his eyes over to his aunt.

Clary chuckles. "I did. I looked like a zombie from that Walking Zombies show. Complete with blood soaked clothes and skin. But now, it's time for you to go home and get a shower and some sleep. You've been here for over two days straight."

Aunt Elodie grimaces and looks down at herself. The usually very put together and stylish woman is still wearing what she wore when she got to the hospital the night Sebastian was shot. It's a pair of jeans and a grey button up blouse while her hair that is usually in a very complicated up do is hanging down by her shoulders, looking a little thin. The woman usually never leaves the house in anything other than a fancy skirt-suit ensemble or an expensive dress with pearls hanging from her neck and ears. "I do want to shower and change very badly."

"Go ahead." Clary says. "I'll be here till you get back."

"I know you will." she says and grabs her bag and coat. Sebastian is smiling warmly at his aunt and watching her as she moves around the room. "I'll see you later." she says to him and gives him a kiss on his cheek before running her fingers through his hair to tame a piece that had started to stick up. "Aunt Elodie." he grimaces and Clary can't help but smile at his embarrassed face as his aunt fusses over him.

"Bye darling." she says to Clary as she passes and kisses her on her cheek as well and leaves, shutting the door behind her. When it is just the two of them left in the room, Clary sets down her bag on the small counter with a sink and unwraps the scarf from around her neck and places it on top if it. "You look better today." she says looking up to see Sebastian's smile.

"I feel better." he answers. "Although I had to endure a sponge bath by the scariest nurse I've ever encountered." He shudders a little and she laughs lightly. "She was as tall as me and was built like a linebacker. And I swear she has more facial hair than me."

Clary's face scrunches up at the thought before she laughs some more. "But at least she did a good job. You look as clean as a whistle." Her eyes scan him and sees that he is still shirtless with the hospital gown draped over one of his shoulders, allowing his bandages to show. They look like they were just changed.

"I also feel a lot better today." Sebastian says. "Come and sit down. You look so awkward just standing over by the door." He motions to the recliner by the far side of his bed.

"I felt awkward standing there, not moving." she admits with a smile as she makes her way over to the chair. She has to tell him about Jace. When she looks up to meet Sebastian's eyes, she can clearly see the hope in them. Hope of them as a couple again. She would be lying to herself if she said that the thought didn't cross her mind too yesterday as she was leaving and they shared that moment when she kissed him on his cheek. She had started to see him differently and it is painful to see that look in his eyes that says that he saw the way she looked at him too. He felt the shift in there relationship as well, however brief it was.

"You're being so quiet." he says in a quiet, concerned voice. "I can see you are thinking about something. It's bothering you."

Clary continues looking down at her hands, wringing them nervously in her lap. "It's just that...something's changed since yesterday." She looks up at him to gauge his reaction.

There is a small soft smile pulling up the edges of his mouth. "I know. I felt it, saw it too." His smile starts to slip away as he continues to look at Clary and realizes that she isn't returning his smile.

She takes a deep breath and decides to tell him the truth. He deserves that. "I saw you differently yesterday. Different than I ever had before. It was like I finally saw _you._ I realized that I hadn't been fair to you, given you a fair chance when we were together. I always thought you were just with me because of who my father was and because you wanted to get ahead with him." He starts to shake his head while his brows furrow. His mouth opens to say something and Clary holds up her hand to tell him to wait. He closes it after a moment and she continues.

"That thought was always in the back of my head, holding me back from being able to see the that that wasn't why you were with me. I think I held myself back from feeling too much for you because I thought you weren't serious about me, or that if I did let you all the way in, you would break my heart when you finally got what you wanted from my family. I can look back now and see that clearly from where I am now, and I am sorry for that. I'm sorry that it took me this long to finally realize that. You, Sebastian, are too good for me. I never deserved you because I never took you seriously and I never gave you the real chance that you deserved. The most messed up part of this whole thing is now, that I realize what I've done, I can see how I totally and completely would have fallen head over heels in love with you if I hadn't been so selfish. I did, I do love you, but I never knew that I was holding you at arms length the whole time. I'm so sorry and I won't ever forgive myself for that."

Sebastian is staring at Clary with a look of surprise on his face. His heart monitor had started to beep a little faster and more unevenly in the middle of her speech, once he realized what she was telling him. "I can see in your eyes that there is more you want to say." he finally says after she doesn't say anything else.

"My heart is breaking because of all of the possibilities that we could have had that we never will have now." Clary says after swallowing past the lump in her throat.

"Why do you say that?" Sebastian asks, his words breathy and worried. "We can start over."

"We can't." she tells him. "I saw Jace last night." She watches his face as pure shock rolls across his beautiful features. His heart picked up to a new pace and worry mixed with anger startes to contort his body language. "He was in my room last night when I got home. My father had let him in."

"Whoa. Slow down." he says holding his hand up to her. "I am seriously confused right now. Why would your father let him anywhere near you?" His voice started to raise. "He tried to have you killed. I am lying here in the hospital because of him!"

"But that's the thing. He didn't do any of it." she tells him and rises from her seat. Her hands move to his shoulders and she pushes him gently back against the bed. He had started to sit up as his voice rose, along with his anger. "His best friend, Alec Lightwood, was in love with him and was jealous of me. He is the one who framed me and killed his father. His second, Michael Wayland, then went behind his back and set up the hit on me because he knew Jace would never be able to do it."

She watches him for a moment as he looks away from her and at the wall at the foot of his bed. She can see him processing everything she just told him and looks on as the emotions pass over his face. Surprise, confusion, shock, anger, and then finally, realization. His mouth, that had fallen open, closes shut as his eyes find hers again. "You're with him again." he says in an almost resigned tone.

"I think so." she says unsurely and shifts uncomfortably on her feet. "At least we are going to try and work everything out. He's got a lot of groveling and apologizing to do but he seems like he is willing to do anything to make up for it. He somehow convinced my dad to let him in the house and to wait in my room for me. That's actually pretty impressive if you ask me."

Sebastian nods his head lightly and lets his head fall back on the pillow propped up behind it. "That _is_ impressive. As much as it kills me to say it, I'm happy for you. I'm happy that he isn't the world class piece of scum I thought he was that tried to kill you. I saw how hurt you were because of that and you being hurt is the last thing I ever want. Even if it means that I hurt because of it."

Clary can no longer hold back the tears that she was holding back. A few of them slip out of her eyes against her will as she grabs for his hand and holds on tightly to it. "I don't know how many times I am going to say this, but I don't think I'll ever say it enough. I don't deserve you, Sebastian. You're too good for me."

"No, I'm not." he tells her. "You deserve to be happy and if you think you can find that happiness with Jace, even after everything that has happened, then I support you and your relationship with him one hundred percent. It's a hard pill to swallow but I'll do it if I know you'll be happy; if I know that _he_ is the one that makes you happy."

Clary lets go of his hand and reaches up and wipes away a few tears that have escaped her eyes. She forces herself to look at him and see the hurt she is causing him, even if he is desperately trying to hide it. "I think we can get back what we had with time." she tells him. "There are going to be trust issues with myself concerning him but he seems more than willing to wait for me to find that trust again. I also have to remind myself that he was also a victim in all of this too and he paid a much higher price than I did. His father was killed and his best friend betrayed him and he had to give over his god-father to my family to be killed to make amends for the hit that was placed on me. We are both victims of Alec's actions."

Clary reaches out her hand and grabs Sebastian's hand that is beside him and squeezes it tightly. He looks down surprised at their hands and then looks up to Clary's face. "But the thing is, I don't want to lose you. I know that is selfish of me but I don't want to go back to the way things were between us; the not talking and not being friends. If you are willing, I want to be friends. Real friends. Ones that go out together on double dates and hang out because we genuinely like spending time with each other. I just don't know if that would be something you would be interested in. If not, I totally and completely understand."

Her eyes are hopeful as they look at Sebastian. He looks down at their hands and at his thumb that is gently rubbing the back of hers and takes a deep breath. He seems to be really considering what she is saying, taking it very seriously. When he looks back up to her, he has a soft smile on his face. "I'd like that." he says. "I only had one night to think about the possibility of us getting back together so it doesn't sting that bad that I know it won't happen now. Before yesterday, I had already resigned myself to just being your friend and I would be more than happy to be one." He stops for a moment and his face turns thoughtful. His eyes narrow a little and a small smirk pulls one side of his mouth up. "Just...take it easy around me when you are with Jace. I can handle hanging out with you two but I'm not so sure I could handle him being all over you. At least, just for a little while. Maybe just until I get laid again."

A laugh bubbles up in Clary's throat and she lets it out. "Alright. That sounds like a fair compromise. I'm sure Jace knows a few ladies that could help you in that department." She lets out another laugh as he chuckles a little and winces at the movement.

"Damn, that hurts." he says and Clary looks worriedly at him. "Well stop being funny and making me and yourself laugh." She reaches over him and pushes the call button for the nurse. "What are you doing?" he asks her.

"I'm calling for you to get another sponge bath. Maybe that nurse from before will give you a happy ending if I slip her a few bills."

"Clary!" he says with wide eyes. "You wouldn't. I told you she looked like a guy I knew in high school right? I think my little man would actually run away if I ever saw her again."

"Just close your eyes and imagine Brooklyn Decker." she says with a diabolical laugh.

"Not even then would..." he starts to say but stops when the door swings open.

To both of their surprise, a _very_ attractive nurse walks in the room. Her blonde hair is braided to one side of her head and hangs down to the middle of her torso. She has the most vivid ice blue eyes and pouty pink lips. She looks like a damn super model. Clary glances back at Sebastian and sees that he looks stunned. His mouth is hanging slightly open and his eyes are traveling up and down her body.

"Hi, a new shift has started and I'll your new nurse for the next twelve hours." she says with a bright smile. Clary can see that she has also noticed how attractive Sebastian is as well. "Nurse Blanche just left and gave me your file. I saw that you called and I was walking by so I thought I'd just stop in."

"Hi...umm...yeah." Sebastian says and then clears his throat as he pulls himself together. "I was just..."

"He was hurting and was wondering if he could get a sponge bath soon and maybe some more pain meds." Clary says after seeing that he was struggling for words. The nurse looks surprised to see Clary as her head snaps over to her for the first time, just noticing she was there. "He looks clean but that is only from the waist up. He washed what he could reach of himself with a wet cloth. The lower half of him on the other hand...is probably still really dirty."

She can see from the corner of her eye that Sebastian's cheeks have turned pink with embarrassment. "I..uh, sure." the nurse says, trying to figure out who Clary is to Sebastian.

"My dear friend here deserves the best care you can give him so...take your time and make sure he's _really_ clean." Clary says and then winks at the nurse.

"Please forgive her." Sebastian says with a nod in Clary's direction. "She doesn't have much of a filter and says things without thinking."

The nurse blushes a little and looks down at her feet while she tries to hide the smile on her face. "That's okay." she says as she looks up after a moment and goes to check the machines by his bed. "I'm used to meeting all kinds of people in my line of work. Nothing really shocks or surprises me anymore."

"What's your name again?" he asks her as he reaches up when she turns around to wash her hands in the sink along the wall and runs a hand through his hair to make sure it is fixed.

"Oh. I forgot to tell you." she says as she spins back around with a flirtatious smile on her lips. "My name is Audrey."

"Nice to meet you, Audrey. I'm Sebastian." he says. He gives her his sexy smile and her eyes widen just a fraction. Yep, she's definitely attracted to him.

In that moment, Clary knows that however awkward things will probably be for a while between them, that everything will work out just fine in the end.

* * *

"Alright. Thanks a lot Mom. Love you too." Jace says. He pulls his phone away from his ear and presses the end call button and looks up to Valentine who is sitting at his desk. Jace sort of feels like a child sitting across from him while Valentine stares him down. "She's in. She'll head over to my place in about thirty minutes and 'find my body'. I've also got my information girl, Aline, finding a look alike for Clary. Knowing her, she'll have someone in no time. She's really good at her job and I trust her."

"Was she the one to tell you about Alexander Lightwood?" Valentine asks.

"She was. She's the best at what she does."

Valentine just nods his head and looks up at Jonathan as he walks back in the room with a glum look on his face. "I told Izzy that Alec had tried to set Clary up and she didn't take it very well. She knows that his days are numbered now and that there is nothing she can do about it. Part of her is hurting for her brother but the other part of her is mad at him for him doing this to himself. It's all his own doing and I think that is what is bothering her the most."

"Knowing Izzy, it is." Jace says sadly. "She understands that he needs to pay for what he's done but the other part of her is hurting so much because she is going to lose him, knowing all the while, that he did it to himself."

"Mom is with her right now." Jonathan adds on. "She absolutely hates for other people to see her cry, but at this point, I think she just needs a mom to hold her to make her feel better."

"Izzy's tough as nails." Jace says, looking up to meet Jonathan's eyes. "She get through this. It'll hurt like hell but she'll get through it. I'm just glad that she has you and your family to help her through it. Maryse and Robert aren't exactly the super supportive type of parents." There was genuine sincerity that rang in his voice and both Morgenstern men seemed to hear that. Their eyes and posture seemed to relax a little towards him at his compliment of their family.

There was a moment of silence before Jace's phone buzzed loudly in his hand. He looked down at the screen to see a text from Aline. He opened it up to find three pictures of red headed women, all about Clary's height and weight. They wouldn't fool anyone up close, but from a distance with big sunglasses and the right clothes, maybe two of them could pass for her. "Aline's gathered a few look alikes." Jace says, turning his phone around to show Valentine. He reaches out and takes his phone and lowers his reading glasses over his eyes so he can get a good look at the few pictures.

"I think the first or third one would be acceptable." Valentine says and then hands the phone to Jonathan so he can inspect the women for himself. "They're all hideous compared to Clary." Jonathan sneers with a scowl on his face as he looks down at Jace's phone.

"I couldn't agree more." Jace says leaning forward and holding out his hand for his phone. Jonathan hands it back to him. "But the point is for them to just fool Alec enough to make him slip up. With the right wardrobe and some makeup, I think the first or third one could pass for her."

"That's all we need." Valentine agrees. "Tell her we'll take the two we agreed upon. That way, when they get here, we will have an option if one of them doesn't work out like we hope."

"Alright." Jace says and sends off a message to Aline. Once that is done, he looks nervously down at his watch and sees that it has been almost five hours since Clary left. He's trying to control the jealous thoughts that are running through his head but is failing. The thought of her being with her ex-boyfriend, who is obviously still in love with her, alone in a hospital room after he threw himself in front of bullets for her, isn't exactly comforting. Especially after the bullets came from his men. They could be bonding over their experience and he could be telling her that he was in love with her and that he would never hurt her like he did.

The worst part is that he would be right. Sebastian knows what it's like to have Clary and then lose her. If he is anything like Jace, there is no way he would mess up again with her. He would treat her like a queen and she would never doubt him because Sebastian had never betrayed her like he did. Clary always said that she didn't love Sebastian like she loved him but she did say that she loved him. Maybe a part of her still did. She could possibly realize that she still did after everything that happened and decide that her chances of not getting hurt would be better with Sebastian and not him. Hell, they could be making out right now.

Jace shoves out of the chair he was sitting in and walks over to the window and looks out at the driveway where there is still no sign of her. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath to try and calm himself down. He can't let himself go down that train of thought. He has absolutely no right to be worried about that. It would serve him right if he lost her after breaking her heart. He promised her that he would trust her, never doubt her again, and he didn't intend to break his promise. He wouldn't do anything to mess up his relationship with Clary again. He had to trust her and that meant trusting her with her ex, even if the jealously and worry and self doubt he felt in this moment killed him.

"What's the matter, pretty boy?" Jonathan asks with a hint of amusement. "Wondering when Clary's going to be back? Worried about her being alone with Sebastian?"

"No." he says too quickly and unconvincingly.

"He's good for her. Always has been. He never hurt her and was always the best boyfriend to her. Not to mention, he loves her like crazy." Jonathan adds on.

Jace doesn't turn around to face him, afraid that his face will betray that he knows Jonathan is right. "I trust her." Jace says with more conviction this time. "If she decided that she wanted to be with him instead of me, then I would respect that. But I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for that to happen." He turns to face Jonathan with a look of confidence on his face, even though Jonathan's words affected him more than he will admit to himself.

Unfortunately for Jace, Jonathan doesn't seem to buy his words and confidence and a knowing smirk spreads across his face. He's clearly satisfied that he got to him.

Jace turns back to look out of the window and sees a convoy of cars rolling down the road. His heart kicks into overdrive and he stands up a little straighter as one of the cars pulls into the driveway. While he is beyond ecstatic to have her back where she is safe, another thought finds it's way to the front of his mind. One that only just a moment ago, he buried deep down, convinced that it was insane. But now, watching her step out of the car looking tired and a little worried as she looks up the house, he can't stop the thought from breaking free and consuming him.

What if Sebastian convinced her to give him another chance? What if he convinced her that he would only hurt her again and that she couldn't trust him?

He nervously runs a hand through his hair, making sure it isn't sticking up anywhere, and smooths down his shirt and pants. "You look nervous." Jonathan says, looking over to Jace with an amused smile.

"If I told you you were right, would you leave me alone?" Jace asks with a bit of a bite to his words.

"I'm not sure." he responds. "I like seeing you squirm; unsure of your standing with my sister. It serves you right."

"I know." Jace says dryly and starts to head out of Valentine's library. By the time he gets to the door to the room, Clary is coming in through the front door on the left. She huffs tiredly as she hangs up her coat before noticing that Jace was there. He is about to say hello when Jonathan pushes past him and wraps Clary in a big hug. "How is Sebastian doing?" Jonathan asks. "Is he still as handsome as ever? Do his bullet wounds make him seem tough and sexy and unbelievably brave?"

Jace purses his lips together, trying not to choke on his worry and concentrating on not wanting to punch Jonathan. "He's doing good." Clary says. She pulls out of her brother's arms and narrows her eyes at him. "And shut up. I know you are just saying those things to bother Jace."

"It's nothing he hasn't been thinking himself." Jonathan says and looks back over his shoulder at him.

"His doctor said that she expects him to make a full recovery with some breathing therapy. He is still having some trouble breathing and is in a fair amount of pain. He'll need some help when he gets out of the hospital. Aunt Elodie and I already made a schedule to trade off helping him along with hiring a nurse."

Jace's jealousy spikes when she says that. She's agreed to take care of him. "You're...going to be taking care of him?" Jace asks, trying desperately to sound neutral.

"I am." she says with conviction. "It's the least I can do since he took two bullets for me and shoved me out of the way of the one that gave me this." She points to the long cut on her cheek. Jace swallows his worry and jealousy and smiles at her. "That's very kind of you. I'm sure he appreciates it." He said he trusts her and he means it. He can't mess this up again.

Of course, he doesn't fool Clary. She smiles knowingly at him and walks over to him and places her hands on his upper arms. "He does. He's my friend and he needs my help and when he's better, I'd like for you to set him up with someone that...puts out." She smirks at him and tries to raise one brow and fails. "He needs to get laid after all of this."

Her words are reassuring for him. His hands come up and rest lightly on her waist and he pulls her a little closer. "I can do that. After all, he did save the woman I love when I didn't. I owe him big time."

"Yes, you do." she says and raises up on her toes. He leans down and places a soft loving kiss on her lips, making his heart soar like he's flying. When she lowers herself back down on the ground, his phone rings. He fishes it out of his pocket and sees his mother's number. "Hey Mom."

"It's done." she replies and he takes a deep breath. "I screamed like a mad woman when I found your body. Aline found a good body match for you. They are taking the dead body down from the noose right now. I've locked myself in your room so I could have some privacy. The men are going to try and take their time getting the body in the morgue vehicle so more people will see and the word can spread that you're dead faster."

"Alright." Jace says with a sinking feeling. He's never been 'dead' before. "Thanks for doing this mom. I love you."

"I love you too." she replies before she hangs up. Jace tucks his phone back in his pocket and turns around to see Valentine leaning against the door of his office. "That was my mother. It's done. I'm now a dead man walking."

* * *

 _Sorry not much happened in this short chapter but it was necessary. The next one will be jam packed with stuff._

 _As always, thanks a billion for taking time out of your day and reading my story. Y'all are the best! Don't forget to review and follow!_


	28. Chapter 28

_Those who watch Shadowhunters, how ready are you for this Climon crap to be over with? It's disturbing how they've portrayed it. Clace forever!_

* * *

 **Five days later...**

Clary walks in the mansion after leaving the hospital. Sebastian got to go home today and she couldn't be happier for him. She's been wearing her mother's clothes when she leaves the house according to her father's demands, and so far, she seems to be fooling everyone around her. It's only supposed to be until after Jace's funeral and then she can go back to dressing like herself. She's even taken her mother's personal guards with her and that thought makes her frown. She misses Jordan.

As she hangs up her mother's coat, Jace comes around the corner where the stairs are smiling hugely at her. He looks gorgeous. He's made himself at home here as much as he can, wearing a pair of Jonathan's athletic shorts and a wife beater. His tattoos are on full display, covering the tops of his arms and snaking around his back, down to the middle of it. She bites her lip at the sight of him. He looks like he just got done with a work out in their home gym upstairs. His golden hair is stuck to his forehead with sweat while the thin white shirt clings to his perfectly sculpted chest.

"Hey baby." he says as he walks to her. "How is Sebastian today?"

"He got to go home." He reaches her then and her hands come up and rest on his firm shoulders. "But all I can think about now is how I want to defile you in every way possible." Her eyes move from his, down his body, lingering in his forbidden places. "You look like you need a shower."

He smiles sexily at her as he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her hips flush against his body. "I think I do."

Since he's been here, she hasn't given into him, not once. She's trying to take it slow but looking at him now and seeing the way he is looking at her, she feels like she is going to lose the battle to deny him and herself any longer. Her body craves his touch. "Do you think you'll need help washing your back?" she asks him, looking up at him through her lashes.

He seems to understand what she is saying and his eyes darken with want. "I think I might. If you don't mind, would you help me?" Jace hasn't made any moves to bed her or made her feel pressured in any way for any kind of sexual contact, and she's glad for it. She wanted and needed to be the one to make the first move once she was comfortable with him again.

She grabs his hand and bites her lip as she turns back towards the stairs, pulling him behind her. The anticipation of what is about to happen is making her heart race and her body heat up. By the time they reach the top of the stairs, Jonathan comes out of his room in nothing but his boxer briefs. When he looks at Jace behind her, his eyes dart down him for a second before looking back up to Clary. "He looks...excited that you are home." he says and then winks at Jace.

She whips her head around and watches as Jace shifts his shorts around while looking a little red in the face. His 'excited state' must have been showing. She turns back to look at Jonathan and starts to shoot daggers at him with her bright green eyes. "Is there something you wanted or did you come out of your room just to annoy me?" she asks him, her voice tight.

"Actually, I was going to ask Jace if he's heard from his mother."

"I have. My funeral is tomorrow. It seems like everyone is still buying the story that I either killed myself or your family killed me and made it look like I killed myself. Either way, everyone believes that I am dead. Even the Lightwoods; with the exception of Izzy, of course."

"Mom's tried to call me a million times." Izzy says, appearing in the doorway of Jonathan's room, dressed in a soft yellow silk robe. "She's left some pretty nasty messages too. Saying how I've betrayed my family by being here with Jonathan and how they've disowned me."

Although she looks completely unbothered by what she is saying, Jonathan turns around and gives her a look of worry. His face gives away that what her family has said hurts her deeply, even if she pretends otherwise. "Once everything is done with, maybe they'll apologize when the realize they were wrong." Clary says with support.

"Don't count on it." she says as she walks over to them. "They think that Alec has run off because he's so sad and hurt about Jace's death that he can't deal with anyone or anything. I wonder what they'll think when they find out the truth."

Jace takes a deep breath and lets it out roughly. "That's another discussion for another day." he says. His tone is soft and supportive and Izzy looks grateful for the change in direction of the conversation, clearly not wanting to talk about her parents any longer. "Right now, it's a waiting game. Although the decoys haven't seen any action, that doesn't mean that he won't try something soon. This should be over in a week. At least that is what the goal is. But in this moment, I need to go take a shower." He motions down to his sweaty clothes and wrinkles up his nose.

Clary begins to move again, turning to go to her room after a smile and a wave at her brother and Izzy, firmly pulling Jace along behind her. Their heat from before has died down tremendously after their run-in with Jonathan. She was so ready to tear Jace's clothes off only a few minutes ago but the sobering conversation she had with them has left her as cold as a fish.

They reach her door and Jace steps around her to open it for her. She smiles at him and walks in and sets down her bag on the desk to the right of her door. She hears the door click shut and she looks up to him to see him studying her, trying to figure out where her head is. When he sees that the mood she was in before is gone, he looks a little disappointed before he schools his features back to his normal face. "I'll just hop in the shower." he says and gives her a peck on her lips. He walks into her bathroom and shuts the door behind him. She hears the water turn on as she shuffles over to her bed and plops down, kicking her shoes off and sliding her mother's dress over her head, glad to be rid of the flowy thing.

She lets herself fall back on her bed and looks up at the ceiling. The sudden change in the sound of the water falling to the floor of her shower lets her know that Jace has stepped in. Once that thought enters her mind, she starts to see things. Memories from their many times they showered together and of the feel of his hands, sliding all over her water covered body. Her hands slipping down his chest and tracing his tattoos up his arms with her fingertips. He would always shudder when she did that, claiming that just the brush of her fingers could make his whole body convulse with pleasure. The look of pure euphoria on his face when she would dig her fingers into his arms while he made love to her forces it's way into her mind and suddenly, her previous mood is back.

Her face is flushed and her body temperature has risen to an almost unbearable height. She claws at the remaining clothes on her and throws them to the floor, leaving her in nothing but her skin.

Clary marches over to the bathroom door and slips in quietly and unnoticed. She can see Jace's silhouette through the steamy glass, his arms raised up and running through his hair to rinse shampoo out of it. His head tips back into the flow of water and she walks silently over to the shower door and steps in. When he brings his head back and opens his eyes, they widen hugely with surprise that only lasts a second. His gold eyes slowly rake down her body, taking in every inch of it, before looking back up at her eyes. He looks a little unsure about what she might want so she makes the decision to show him exactly what she wants. She steps to him, pressing every inch of her body against his, and brings their lips together with an almost bruising force. He wastes no time in returning her enthusiasm, grabbing the back of her head to press her mouth harder into his.

Forty five minutes later, Clary and Jace step out of the shower, smiling like madmen as they dry each other off. "Thank heaven for tankless water heaters." Clary says with a wicked glint to her eyes. "The never ending hot water is a must have for amazing shower sex. No cold water to ruin the mood."

"I couldn't agree more." he says and tears her towel away from her. She shouts at him and jumps to try and get it back from his hand that is raised high in the air. "That's right. Jump higher. Do it again." he says and looks down at the jiggly parts of her body.

Her eyes narrow at him, realizing what he was doing and turns away to go to her dresser for some pajamas. "Oh, come on! Don't you want your towel? Aren't you cold without it?" he whines.

"Nope. I'm as warm as ever." She pulls out a pair of shorts and form fitting t-shirt and one of her 'night' bras. That is one of the down sides to still living with your brother and parents. She can't just let her girls hang free while walking around the house. It just makes her feel weird if she does.

She feels Jace's lips on her neck and her eyes fall closed without her permission, loving the feel of his mouth on her. "Are you really _that_ _hungry_?" he whispers against her skin, making the hairs there stand on end. "Do you really need to eat dinner?"

She forces her eyes open and spins around. The look of pure love and happiness with a hint of lust on his face almost breaks her will. "Yes. It's nine o'clock and I didn't have lunch. I'm starving." His shoulders sag with defeat and he kisses her before stepping out of her way, letting her pass and put her clothes on by her bed. Jace quickly dresses in some sweat pants that Jonathan has loaned him and forgoes a shirt, mainly because all of the shirts he has or that Jon's let him borrow are dirty. This will not be good for her concentration.

"Come on. Let's go see what Mom has cooked up." she says, moving past him and out of her room. Jace's bare footfalls can be heard slapping against the marble floor behind her. Once they near the kitchen, the smell of basil pesto hits her nose.

"Ahhh. Just in time." Jocelyn says, pulling a casserole dish from the oven.

"Mmmm." Clary says with a huge smile. "Basil pesto chicken with tomatoes and mozzarella. One of my favorites."

"Dinner smells amazing." Jace tells her.

"It is." Izzy calls from the adjoining living area. "We had some an hour ago. That's the second batch she made just for the two of you. She figured that you'd be hungry after your workout and shower and after Clary's long day at the hospital."

"Mom, you didn't have to do that. You could have made it all at once and we could have heated it up."

"Well, I did do it so dig in." She smiles at Clary and then moves around the island. Jace hurries over and starts piling the food on a plate while Jocelyn leans in Clary's ear as she passes and says, "Jace looks...relieved. Did he have a _relaxing_ shower?"

"Mom!" she whines lowly as her cheeks flame and pushes her mother's chuckling form away from her.

"Alright, who was closest to five days?" Jocelyn asks as she walks into the adjoining room where everyone else is. It looks like everyone has settled in to watch a movie. Clary furrows her brows in confusion and looks up to see Izzy smiling wildly.

"I did. I had six days. I knew she wouldn't be able to hold out for very long." Izzy says with a wink over at her.

"What are you guys talking about?" Clary asks forcefully. Jace has just stopped moving, his eyes scanning them, trying to figure out what they are talking about in his own way.

"We made a bet on how long you would make Jace wait to Slytherin your Hufflepuff and put sour cream on your burrito." Izzy says with a smirk.

There is a collective groan from her family members while her father looks horrified from where he is sitting in his recliner in the corner. "Did you really have to put it that way, Iz?" Jonathan says with a sour look over at her. She just shrugs her shoulders and winks at him.

"Wait." Clary says deathly serious. "You made bets on my sex life?" Her tone has turned surprised with just a hint of outrage.

"We had to do something being stuck in the house with the two of you." Jocelyn says as she smirks at them. "The sexual frustration on Jace's face every time he would look at you was painful for us to watch. So, we decided to have some fun. Make a profitable game out of it."

"I expected more from you, Clary." her father says in a deep voice. He is studiously watching the television as the opening credits to a movie plays. "I thought for sure you'd make him suffer for at least three weeks."

"Please." Jonathan says indignantly. "Have you seen the bastard? He's almost as pretty as me and girls can barely keep their hands to themselves when I walk into a room. I hardly make it back home alive when I go out in public."

Everyone in the room rolls their eyes heavily while Clary glares at them. "What in the world is wrong with you people?" she asks. "That's just...sick and...ewwww. And anyway, how are you sure we had sex?"

"Come on, little sis." Jonathan says as he stands up and starts towards them. "We know your face like the back of our hands. The deep blush on your cheeks combined with the way you will barely look me in the eye right now is all the proof we need. Besides, Jace behind you finally doesn't look like he is in immense pain anymore." He ruffles her hair as he passes by them. Once his back is to her, walking away in the other direction, he calls out, "Oh, and you're not exactly quiet in the sack. We could hear everything."

Clary feels like she is about to combust with embarrassment. She looks over to Jace beside her and sees that he is actually blushing quiet heavily. He dips his head and spins around, hiding his face, while pretending to look for a fork to eat his dinner with even though he already has one in his hand. "What's the matter?" she asks him with a smirk, capitalizing on his incredibly rare moment of self consciousness.

He won't even look at her as he starts to speak in a hushed voice to her. "Oh, I don't know. Probably the fact that apparently, Valentine Morgenstern heard me defiling his daughter under his roof. I'm actually a little concerned for my life right now." The look on his face is one of true worry.

Clary bursts out laughing at the look on his face. He cuts his eyes over to her with a look of disbelief. "What's so funny, Clary? I'm actually scared and you're laughing at me?"

"Yes..." she laughs uncontrollably some more, "Yes I am. The look on your face...", more laughter, "...is priceless. I'm sure it's not one I will see often in our life together so I am taking full advantage of this moment."

"I'm glad you find my concern for my life hysterical." he sort of growls at her. She can tell he isn't really upset at her reaction as he turns and heads for a seat at the kitchen island. She grabs her plate of food and walks over to him with a gentle smile on her face. When she reaches him, she quickly places a kiss on his cheek, him trying to turn and keep her from his lips. "Awww, come on baby. Don't be like that." she whines at him, sticking her bottom lip out at him. "You know you're not mad at me."

Clary makes sure her mom and dad are watching the movie and then leans into him some more and takes her hand and drags it up his thigh, digging her fingers into the material of his shorts as she goes. When she gets to the top of his thigh, her hand slips down to in between his legs while she places a soft kiss on his shoulder. Her tongue darts out slightly and drags up his neck. She's satisfied when she sees him shiver at her actions. Goosebumps raise on his skin while his leg muscles tighten when she grabs a hold of him.

"Get a room." she hears her brother whisper in her ear as he passes by them again. He is walking back into the room with a wad of cash in his hands. He tosses it into Izzy's lap and she smiles triumphantly as she starts to count the bills.

"How much did you make?" Clary calls out to her.

"Five hundred from each. So, fifteen hundred total." she calls back over her shoulder with a glint in her eye.

"You taking me shopping with that money I helped you win?" Clary calls back to her.

"Sure. I think we can come to some sort of arrangement." Izzy says and the girls smile at each other while raising their hands and giving each other a long distance high five in the air.

Once Clary and Jace are done, they join the rest of her family in the living room and cuddle together on a love seat. Jace has seemed to have forgiven her for laughing at him, his fingers trailing lightly on her arm as she sits in between his legs while his back is resting on the arm of the couch. Her head lays just under his chin while her eyes start to droop with every blink. Just before she is about to give into her eyes and fall asleep, he phone buzzes beside her on the back of the love seat where it's precariously perched.

She reaches up and looks at the screen, seeing Jordan's number. "Hey Jordan." she says, answering the phone. "What's up?"

"Is Maia there?" he asks.

"No. She's not back from that interview yet? It's been like..." she pulls the phone away from her face and looks at the time. "...four and a half hours."

"No. She hasn't come back." he tells her. "I thought she might be over there with you. Have you heard from her?"

"I haven't." she says, pushing up and off of Jace, into a sitting position. "She did say that the lady said that the interview would take a while. But...four hours is a little excessive." Clary thinks about how excited Maia was when she got a call two days ago from some lady that wanted to interview her for an executive assistant job at her favorite graphic design company. It was the company that made her favorite video games which is a favorite activity of hers to do with Jordan. She had put in for a secretary job like a year ago but only just now got a call back.

"That's what I was thinking." Jordan agrees. "The thing that really worries me is that she isn't answering her phone or responding to my messages."

"Maybe the interview didn't go well and she's upset. You know she likes to sulk for a while sometimes when she's in a bad mood." Clary stands up and shuffles out of the room and into the adjoining kitchen.

"Maybe." he replies with a heavy sigh. "Can you try to call her? Maybe she'll answer the phone for you."

"I'll do that right now. I'll call you back soon. Bye." Clary hangs up before she hears his answer and quickly dials Maia's number. The phone rings four times and then picks up. There is nothing but silence and she presses the phone to her ear harder, covering the other one with her hand to try and block out the background noise of the movie. "Maia?" she asks into the phone.

"Hello Clary." a deep voice says. "I've been specifically waiting for your call."

It's Alec.

Before she can shake off the shock of hearing his voice instead of Maia's and say something, he speaks again. "I would suggest you don't say a word and just listen. I know you're at home right now and I can hear a movie playing in the background. Is it a comedy? Are you having a good time?" he says with a snarky tone. "How can you live with yourself? Jace's funeral was today, did you know that?" he sneers at her. She just remains quiet as panic starts to grip her. "I know that your family killed him. He would have never killed himself." His voice sounds strained and he hiccups the last word, clearly trying to reign in his emotions. "I knew you would kill him, you fucking whore. I tried to tell him over and over again but he just wouldn't listen to me...and now, he's dead." He has to stop for a moment as she hears him turn away from the phone and sniffle. He's crying.

"Yes, he's dead." Clary says quietly with a bite to her tone into the phone, playing along with the illusion her family and Jace had created just for him. "That's because he tried to kill me. Did you think that would go unpunished? We even got Wayland..."

"I SAID NOT TO SAY A FUCKING WORD!" he shouts angrily. She has to pull the phone away from her ear from the loudness of it. There is loud breathing on the other end of the line as Alec tries to calm himself down. "Now, I'm assuming you've figured out that I have your dear friend Maia with me."

Clary grinds her teeth together with the effort not to shout at him and threaten him within an inch of his life. "You are going to come and meet us or Maia and I will have some fun together. Won't we, Maia?" There is a muffled yelp of pain close to the phone and it sounds like Maia is gagged. He's obviously done something to cause her pain and her anger spikes. "You are to leave your house completely alone within sixty seconds of hanging up the phone or Maia looses something important to her. Once in the car, call Maia's phone again and I will give you directions to where you are to go. You _will_ be on the phone with me the entire time."

Clary suspects this is because he wants to make sure that she won't call anyone else to come help her or tell them where she's going. "If for any reason the phone cuts off, Maia will loose something important to her. Do you understand?"

"I do." she says through her clenched jaw.

"Good girl. If I feel for any reason that someone is with you or is following you, your best friend will pay dearly for it. Nobody really needs two eyes, right?" The phone cuts off then and she curses under her breath.

She spins around and is utterly shocked to see everyone standing behind her, watching her with concern. "Who was that?" Jace asks. His face is serious and stern.

"Everyone, walk with me." she says as she turns towards the stairs. "That was Alec. He's got Maia and he wants me to leave the house within the next minute or he'll hurt her." By this point, she's at the last few steps of the top of the stairs. Thankfully, her family and Jace stay quiet and don't bombard her with questions. "Mom. Gun." she says and hears her mother give a voice of understanding and then her bare feet slapping against the floor as she runs to get one. She pushes open her bedroom door and grabs a pair of jeans that are on her desk, thankful that her father had sewn a hidden compartment for a small two shot gun.

"I have to call him when I leave and stay on the phone with him while I drive. He'll be giving me directions so I assume he has someone watching the house that will be following me." She doesn't think twice about stripping out of her shorts in front of her father and brother, having her favorite pair of boy shorts on that cover more than her bathing suit, and hastily pulling on her pants. "Where's a burner?" she calls out as she spins around.

"I've got a few in my office. I'll get it on your way out." Valentine says.

"I'll call your phone, Jon, and stay on the line with you while on the phone with Alec so you will hear everything." She spins around and finds her slip on athletic shoes that are always by her door and pushes past the three men, not looking any of them in the eye. She knows that they are probably looking pretty wary and that is the last thing she needs to see right now. She needs to stay focused and not worry about them.

"We'll go out the back way. No one knows about that so he won't know that we'll be coming for you." Jonathan says from somewhere behind her. They are all hurrying down the stairs at this point. "I swear you won't be alone with him for more than a few minutes."

"I'm not worried about that." she says back to him. "I can take care of myself. If I can't kill him myself when I get there, I'll keep him talking and distracted while I wait for everyone. I just need someone to be there because I don't want him to hurt Maia somehow or get away."

"Let me go with you." she hears Jace's voice say. He sounds incredibly stressed.

"You know you can't." she says to him without turning around. They've reached the coat closet then and she yanks down one of her jackets that she knows has a bottle of pepper spray in one of the inside pockets. Her mother comes running up then and hands her one of her guns. She tucks it into the small compartment on the inside waistband of her pants. When she looks up, she notices Izzy standing at the far side of the foyer. She is watching them from a distance and has tears silently streaming down her face.

Clary locks eye contact with her and her heart breaks. "I'm sorry Iz." she says simply in her most sincere voice. Izzy just nods her head and gives her the most tight lipped and saddest smile she's ever seen. She then looks up to Jace who's eyes are boring into her. He grabs her face in between his hands and pulls her mouth quickly to his in a searing kiss. When he pulls back, he says, "I love you, Clary. Be careful. You're all I have left."

"I love you, too." she tells him fervently and then feels a hand grab her hand and press something into it. She looks down and sees that her father has given her a burner phone and some car keys that she quickly tucks into her pocket and then pulls out her personal phone and clutches it in her hand. "Focus everyone. He may have started this but I'll be damned if we aren't the ones who finish it." She shoves everyone away from the door before swinging it open and hurrying down the stairs. She checks the time and sees that she only had two seconds to spare and thanks her lucky stars she made it out in time.

* * *

The moment the door shuts behind Clary, there is an explosion of action. Jace watches as Jonathan sprints up the stairs and runs into his room where he's assuming he will be getting dressed. He's only in some sweatpants and a wife beater at the moment. Valentine disappears into his office and Jace decides that he needs to get clothes on too.

He takes the steps to the second floor two at a time and bursts into Clary's room. He grabs his jeans that are folded neatly in her closet and yanks them on in record time. He pulls down a black long sleeved shirt of Jonathan's that he's been wearing since he got here and slides his feet into his only pair of shoes which thankfully are black and make no noise when walking. His feet are then carrying him at an incredible rate back down the stairs where he is surprised to see Jonathan almost fully decked out in thin black tactical gear, the pockets full of all sorts of weapons and ammo. How he got dressed like that so quickly, he has no idea.

Valentine then appears with a tight face, emerging from his office dressed very similarly to his son. He isn't wearing a tactical vest but his pants are covered in pockets. He suddenly realizes that Jonathan isn't the only incredibly deadly one in this family. Valentine looks completely the part of someone who was trained to kill someone with just his pinky finger. He can't help but wonder how many people he's killed. There has never been a report of him getting his hands dirty, but looking at him now, he knows that that couldn't be further from the truth.

"Jocelyn, where is my..." Valentine starts to say when she appears beside him and hands him a very beautiful pistol. The handle is clearly made out of ivory with the Morgenstern coat of arms carved beautifully into either side of it. "Thanks, love." he says to her with a soft smile and gives her a quick and passionate kiss.

"Here." Jonathan says and then is shoving two guns into Jace's hands for which he is incredibly thankful for. "Thanks, man." he tells Jonathan who glances at him and nods. Jonathan then turns to his mother and speaks quickly to her. "Please, take care of Izzy." His eyes are pleading and in that moment he realizes just how much Jon loves his sister. He can see that it is killing him to hurt her by killing her brother, but knowing that it has to be done.

"Don't worry. I will. I promise." she reassures him and he moves quickly to Izzy's side a few feet away. He dips his head down to her and begins to speak quietly to her. The look on both of their faces is something so personal and private that he finds himself turning away from them to give them privacy. He pushes the magazine release button on both pistols, checking that they are both fully loaded, before sliding them back in and hearing them lock into place.

When he looks up, he sees Valentine watching him intently. "If you want him, he's yours. If you don't think you can do it, then one of us will take care of it." Valentine says to him.

He instantly knows he is talking about killing Alec. Jace takes a deep breath as he feels his resolve solidifying in his chest. "No. I want to do this. He's killed my father and destroyed what I loved. He needs to die by my hand."

Valentine gives him a tight nod before saying, "I'll try to save him for you but if things go down badly and I have to do it, then I'll take the shot."

"I understand. The only thing that really matters is that he doesn't live to see another sunrise." Jace says, tucking one gun into the back of his pants while holding the other firmly in his dominant hand.

There is a shrill ringing sound that breaks through the tense situation and Jonathan hurriedly pulls out his phone and doesn't say a word as he flips it to speaker phone. Clary's voice comes through then. "Where am I going, Alec?" she asks.

"Take Grand Avenue and head towards Manhattan." he hears Alec's voice say in the distance. Jonathan hurriedly kisses Izzy and says a quick, yet adamant 'I love you' and then they are running towards the back of the house. Jace is surprised when instead of heading out the back door, they turn and go down into the basement. Instead of asking why the hell they are going in the basement, he just follows the two men. They run to the corner of the basement and pull a dusty shelf away from the wall to reveal a hidden passage behind it. No time is wasted as they all start running as fast as their feet can carry them down the long and dark tunnel connected to the door.

From the direction the door is that they just went through, he knows that they are running under the street that runs behind their mansion. Another twenty seconds pass before they come to a set of thin stairs. He follows them up and through the door at the top and into a small pharmacy. They head towards the back of the store and push through the loading door on the back of the place and find that there are three very inconspicuous cars parked along the small alley the store backs up on. "Come with me." Jonathan says quickly, turning to Jace and he follows him to a generic looking Chevrolet while Valentine hops into the Honda behind them. The moment that Jonathan turns over the engine in the car, there is a very distinct sound that he knows only comes from a very altered engine. It has clearly been altered for speed up and is probably as fast as his Aston Martin. He has no doubt that Valentine's car is the same way.

"Stay quiet." Jonathan whispers over to Jace and looks pointedly down at the phone between them in the cup holder. "He can't hear that she has someone else on the phone." Jace gives him a tight nod and then they are off. The car lurches forward with a very low purr and he realizes that these cars aren't just meant to be fast, but also stealthy; barely making a noise as they weave in and out of traffic, heading towards Grand Avenue.

"Get on 278 and head south." he hears Alec's voice say and it makes his blood boil. He's so angry at him he can barely think straight when he thinks about what his so-called friend is doing to the woman he loves.

"I'll bet he is taking her to the Navy yard." Jace whispers after a few minutes of thought to Jonathan. "There's a warehouse down there where Alec and I would go to when we were kids to watch all of the ships come in. It's abandoned now."

"Good." Jonathan says back to him. "That means you'll know your way around."

"Yes, I will."

The rest of the car ride is quiet. When Jace looks over at Jonathan, he can tell that he is preparing himself for what is about to come. There is a stern look of concentration and fierce dedication on his face that would be downright scary to be the recipient of. He once again reminds Jace of a deadly snake that is ready to strike in less than a seconds notice. Alec's voice can be heard through the phone, calling out the final turns to her and Jace's theory is confirmed as his assumptions and confirmed that he is leading her to the warehouse they used to frequent. "I was right. It's the warehouse." he whispers to Jonathan.

"Good. Give me a quick layout when she hangs up." Jonathan says as the car lurches forward as he presses down on the accelerator.

"There's no need for that. I'm sure he'll want her to go to the roof where we would watch the ships roll in." Jace once again pops open the magazine and checks it one last time, trying to bury the worry he is feeling for Clary. He knows she can handle herself but that still doesn't mean that he isn't concerned that Alec will just shoot her on sight. The muscles in his jaw flex stiffly as his anger grows towards his former best friend. The fact that he would willingly kill his soul mate is not only beyond hurtful, it's the most infuriating thing he's ever experienced. One thing is for sure though. Jace has never been more determined to kill anyone in his entire life than he is to kill Alec. At least that is what he hopes. Knowing that he will be seeing him again soon is making him feel uneasy, his mind unwillingly revisiting memories of his childhood with him. He clamps down on those thoughts, refusing to let his past feelings muddle his current ones.

* * *

"Go to the third warehouse on the left and turn the car off." Alec's voice calls out and Clary does as he says. She looks up into the night and sees a large abandoned building rising up before her. There are over sized heavy metal sliding doors all along the side of it where there are obvious signs of rust and weathering coating the outside of them. She's heard Jonathan and Jace mumbling things to each other on the burner phone every now and then but has no idea what they were saying. "Alright. I'm here." She calls out. "The car is off. Now where do I go?"

"There is a door beside the fifth bay door and a set of stairs just to the right when you walk in that door. Go inside and climb the stairs all the way to the top. I'll be watching you so don't even think about trying to call anyone else. In fact, why don't you leave your phone in the car." he replies.

Clary looks up in her rear view mirror and sees the headlights of the car that has been following her light up the inside of her car. "As you can see, my associate will be watching your every move so don't try anything."

She grimaces with annoyance and opens her car door and steps out. She makes a show of holding her phone up in the air and then reaching back into the car and tossing it into the seat while the burner phone is burning a hole in her coat pocket. A gust of wind blows through her hair then, sending it flying into her face. She spins around, pushing in behind her ears, and starts to make her way towards the door up ahead. She's ready for all of this to be over. If he's hurt just one hair on Maia's head, she'll blow his dick off with her tiny gun.

She reaches the door then and turns the door knob there, a squeaking sound accompanying it, and steps inside. Metal rods and pieces of boats and engines are scattered everywhere on the inside of the building. There, to the left of the door, is the staircase that Alec told her about. Her foot hits the first step and the small sound reverberates through the empty building, echoing off of every surface. She takes her time climbing the stairs, giving her brother and Jace time to reach her. It's only five flights of stairs up till she reaches the door that states boldly in red letters 'ROOF ACCESS' across the middle of it. After a deep breath to focus herself, she slowly opens that door and is quickly hit with a biting blow of wind. It's much colder on the roof than on the ground. The wind is blowing unimpeded off of the river and up the building. She's thankful that it was unseasonably warm today, making the bite from the wind not as bad as it would be if it had been cooler.

"Well if it isn't the whore of Babylon herself!" Alec calls out from somewhere to her left. Her head snaps in that direction to see him over by the corner of the roof with a venomous smile on his lips.

* * *

Jonathan parks a few buildings down from the warehouse where Alec and Clary are. Valentine pulls up only seconds beside them in his car, rolling his window down to speak to them. Jonathan leans down to his window and says, "He's on the roof of that warehouse down there." He points to the building in question. "Jace and I will go up the inside but he says that there are stairs on outside of the east wall that go all the way to the top. You wanna take those?"

"Yeah. That sounds good." Valentine turns off the car and steps out with a deadly look in his eyes. The three men break out into a light jog as they close the last few hundred feet to the warehouse. They all stop when they see a car idling at the mouth of the alley that runs between the warehouse and the building next to it. Jonathan makes a move that lets them know he will take care of the problem and then scurries down low behind the car as quick as if he were sprinting in a marathon, never making a single sound while doing it. Jace watches as he slinks down along the driver's side of the car and comes to rest just below the driver's window.

The driver has his window rolled half way down while cigarette smoke flows out of it. He's clearly meant to be Alec's look out, his head looking around at the area around him every few seconds. Without warning, Jonathan pops up and reaches deftly into the half rolled down window. A flash of silver reflects the light from the full moon in Jonathan's hand just before Jace realizes it's a knife. The man never sees him coming. Jonathan slides his blade easily across his throat, the man choking quietly as blood pours from the deep wound in his neck. Before he is even dead, Jonathan is signaling them that it is okay to come out.

The two men hurry from their hiding spot behind the building beside the warehouse and as Jace turns to meet Jonathan, Valentine just continues on to the other side of the building and disappears. "Take the lead." Jonathan tells Jace and he nods quickly before taking off at a run towards the door.

* * *

Clary ignores his comment and looks to his left side and sees Maia lying on her side. Her hands are tied around her back and her feet are tied together with a zip tie. There is duct tape wrapped tightly around her head covering her mouth. Clary is alarmed when she sees red staining around the bottom of her pants, coming from her left foot. "What did you do to her?!" she cries out at him in anger.

"She tried to run so I made it so that she couldn't try that again." he says with a shrug of his shoulders. He is holding a gun in one of his hands, pointing it at Maia's head. Clary lets her eyes quickly scan around the mostly barren roof to check if anyone else is here.

"Is there anyone else here?" she asks, her eyes meeting Maia's. Maia hurriedly shakes her head no while Alec's face contorts in anger.

"YOU DON'T GET TO TALK TO HER!" he growls loudly with a rough tone at her. "I don't get to talk to Jace so you don't get to talk to her. She is going to have to watch you die, all the while, not being able to stop it from happening."

"Just let her go, Alec. This is between you and me." Clary says to him in a calm voice. Her hands have come up to in front of her, holding them to where her palms are facing him.

Alec just completely ignores her. "You ruined everything." he says with a pained look. "You just waltzed right into my life and destroyed it with a big fucking smile on your stupid face. How did you do it, huh? How did you get Jace to stay with you? Do you have some magic pussy and that is what kept his interest?" His free hand is clenched tightly into a fist at his side while Maia turns her head up and tries to stay out of the way of where the gun is pointed down at her.

"He didn't love you." he spits at her. "Did you know that? He was telling me the day before his father's birthday that he was thinking about breaking it off with you. He said that you had become too clingy and were grating on his nerves."

"Why are you lying, Alec?" she says, pity laced thickly in her voice. "I know you were in love with him. It was written all over your face when you would look at him."

All of his anger is wiped from his face and is replaced with shock for a few brief seconds. He squares his shoulders and looks pointedly into her eyes. "Yes, I did. There is no point in denying it now. I loved him my entire life. He was my everything and you took him from me. He was _so close_ to realizing that he loved me too before you came along."

Clary can't help what comes out of her mouth next. "You're fucking delusional." Once the words are out of her mouth, she realizes it wasn't probably the best thing to say since a gun is pointed at her best friend.

"I'm not delusional!" he shouts at her, spit flying from his mouth. "He loved _me_! I would have had everything I ever wanted if only I had just a little more time with him. Time without you around."

Clary can see that he is starting to lose control. His anger is getting the better of him from the look on his face. "But no." he continues. "You had your slimy little hooks in him so deep and you wouldn't let go. I tried, _so many times_ , to tell him that you only wanted to bring him and his family down and I was right. You went and killed his own father, you heartless bitch, and you would have killed him eventually."

"You and I both know that that isn't true." she tells him, leveling her voice at him. Just then, she sees a flash of white hair behind him. She keeps her eyes on Alec though, worried that she would draw attention to the man pulling himself up and over the ledge of the building. She is only a little surprised when she realizes it's her father. "I didn't kill Stephen. My family didn't kill Stephen."

"Do you think I care about that anymore?" Alec asks her. "I couldn't care less what happened to Stephen because I know, without a doubt, that it was your brother who killed Jace. My beautiful Jace." His voice breaks on Jace's name and a pained expression covers his face. A few tears start to roll down his cheeks and he has to take a stunted breath before he continues. "And it was all because of you."

Clary keeps her face impassive as her father rises to his feet silently behind Alec. She quickly wonders where Jace and Jonathan are, wanting desperately to have this over with. Maia doesn't seem to notice her father and is looking increasingly worried as the seconds pass. Her father pulls his gun from his pocket with his right hand while his left produces a knife.

"And look at you." Alec says, waving his gun in her direction. "You don't even care that he's dead. The lack of any emotion, especially hurt, on your face confirms everything I already knew. You didn't love him. You never did."

"And that is where you, Alec, are wrong." she says to him, her jaw flexing with her anger. Her father is only a few feet away from Alec now and she knows that it is over. "I love him with my entire being and with every breath I take and he loves me. We will spend the rest of our lives together while you rot away in a shallow grave."

His brows furrow with confusion just as Valentine wraps his arm with the knife in it around his neck and places his gun at his temple. Maia, the incredibly brave and strong woman she is, takes advantage of his distraction and surprise. She flips over onto her back swiftly and kicks his hand with her bound feet and sends his gun flying away from him. "Hello Alec." Valentine coos into his ear. "I don't believe we've ever met. My name is Valentine Morgenstern."

Alec swallows roughly, his throat moving with the action while his face begins to betray him. His once beautiful features turn panicked and his hands come up to grip Valentine's arm to try and pull away. He presses his knife into his throat harder, making a bead of blood roll down his neck.

Clary hears a shuffle of feet and looks over to see her brother and Jace come out from behind where the stairs jut out and onto the roof. She assumes they were waiting for her father before coming around the corner unless her father didn't make it on time. Jace looks her over quickly, searching for any sign of injury before reaching her and pulling her in for a quick kiss.

"Oh...my..." Alec says. Clary looks back over to him and sees that his eyes are as wide as saucers. "Jace. You're alive?"

Jace doesn't reply as he looks over to him. His golden eyes are hard and unforgiving as he locks with his ice blue ones. "I faked my death, knowing that it would make you desperate to kill her after the phone call you made to her while she was in the hospital. You showed your hand and I out-played you."

Alec is clearly still in shock, unable to do anything except stare at Jace in disbelief. "I told you to run, to get out of town, but you didn't listen. You've forced my hand, Alec. You've left me with no choice."

"Jace." Alec says with a fresh round of tears rolling down his face. "I can't believe it. You're alive. You're really here. I have been in so much pain. I thought I'd never see you again."

"By the end of the night, you'll wish that you never did see me again." Jace tells him as he slowly starts to make his way over to him. Jonathan has left her side and is cutting the zip ties from around Maia's hands and feet. Once her hands are free, she reaches up and tears the tape from around her head and frees her mouth. "You dumb fucking piece of shit." she calls out to Alec. "Did you really think you could pull this off?" She looks over to Jonathan and grabs his hand and pulls herself up. Clary starts to walk over to help her brother with her injured best friend. As soon as Maia is balanced on her one good foot beside Alec, she pulls her arm back and snaps it forward. Her fist makes a satisfying sound as it crashes against Alec's cheek.

The punch from her seems to bring Alec back into reality, the shock from seeing Jace alive fading and fear replacing it.

When Clary reaches Maia, she slings one of her arms over her shoulder while Jonathan wraps his arm around her waist to support her while she holds onto him and hobbles over to the door. "I've got her." Jonathan tells Clary and she kisses her friend once quickly on her cheek and whispers "I love you." before turning around to watch the scene in front of her unfold.

"No one threatens Clary and lives to tell about it." Jace says as he stops within a few feet of Alec. Valentine lets go of Alec then, knowing that there is no escape for him, and he almost falls over, his legs buckling like a newborn fawn's.

"Jace. Just...let me touch you one last time." Alec pleads with him. "Please."

Jace carries on as if he didn't say anything. "You, Alec, are the most vile piece of scum that I have ever come across in my life, and that's really saying something." Alec flinches heavily at his words. "You were raised beside me. My father treated you, Izzy, and Max like his own children. You were my best friend and brother. You claim to love me yet you killed my father and framed the woman I love for it, tearing me apart. You lied and schemed to try and get what you wanted, while in the meantime, you were smiling in my face, telling me how happy you were for me. You were the snake in the grass that my father always warned me about. The person that would see what I had and try and take it from me."

"Jace." Alec says with a shaky voice. Hurt and remorse are fighting to win dominance on his face while tears pour freely from his blue eyes. "Please. I just..." He tries to take a step toward him and the look on Jace's face stops him.

"The time for talking is over with, Alec. Now it's time for you to die. No one has ever deserved to die as much as you do." Alec curls in on himself a little as he blanches at his words. Jace looks up and over at Valentine then. "Would you mind if I used your gun?" he asks him. "I think a Herondale killing him with a Morgenstern gun would be the way to go."

Valentine looks at him thoughtfully for a few moments, clearly thinking hard about his request. After a few quiet moments of thought, Valentine raises his arm that is holding the ornately carved pistol, and steps over to Jace and places it in his outstretched hand. "Thank you, Mr. Morgenstern." Jace says with sincerity.

When Jace looks back to Alec, he can see that he fully understands what is about to happen. He has started to look slightly panicked though the main emotion on his face is sadness. "I just want to ask one last time, Alec; why did you do it? All of it?" Jace asks with a tiny bit more softness to his voice.

Alec swallows roughly and his shoulders sag as he begins to speak. "I love you and I wanted you. I figured that if Clary was out of the picture you would realize, with a little push from me, that we were meant to be together. I never meant for your father to die. I'm truly sorry about that."

"The time for apologies is long over." Jace says, pulling the slide back and cocking the gun. "Your selfishness and your stupidity has brought this upon your own self. No one but you is responsible for me standing here, killing you. I thought that I would it would be hard to do this and that it would hurt me to kill you, but looking around at everything you've done not only to me, but to the woman I love, I feel nothing but relief." Jace can tell that this, more than anything, cuts down to Alec's soul. 'Good.' he thinks to himself.

Jace raises the gun and aims it at his heart. It seems fitting to place his bullet there. Maybe Alec will feel some of the pain he experienced when Alec broke his heart by killing his father and driving him to push the love of his life away. At least, that is what Jace hopes he will feel before death takes him.

Jace's eyes travel up to Alec's. There are tears rolling down his cheeks as he straightens out his back and stands up tall, trying to regain some of his dignity as he dies. Jace doesn't blink, holding Alec's gaze as he breathes out and squeezes the trigger. There is a loud pop as the gun goes off while he holds the gun steady, countering the kick of it. Alec's eyes widen a fraction with surprise for a moment before he falls to his knees. He sways there for a moment before his pupils blow wide and he falls face first onto the roof.

The silence that follows Alec's death is heavy. The breeze coming up over the side of the building has picked up, blowing through the shirt he is wearing, causing him to shiver slightly. He stares at Alec for a moment longer, watching as his blood pools around his body before looking over his shoulder a little to his right and finding Clary's eyes. Even in the night, her eyes are the most vivid and sparkling green that he's ever seen.

They stand there for a moment, just looking at each other before he takes a deep breath and turns slowly to face her father. He hands him his gun back with a nod and Valentine claps him on his shoulder as he passes him, making his way to Clary. She stands there by the door and by her brother who is holding up Maia. Clary is grasping her elbows tightly. Whether she is cold or is just tying to comfort herself for some reason, he doesn't know. He just keeps walking steadily to her, never breaking eye contact, no one ever uttering a sound.

He stops only a foot from her. She searches his eyes for something for a moment before her hands come away from her body and raise up to hold his face. "I love you, Jace." she says quietly to him. "It's over now."

One of his arms wraps around her waist while his other hand raises up and drags lightly across her jaw and comes to rest just behind her ear. "Yes, it's finally over. I was worried that I wouldn't want to do it. That your father or brother would have to do it because I'd let my past with him affect me. But when I came here tonight and I saw him, I felt nothing but hatred. He wanted to destroy everything I loved just because I didn't love him the way he wanted. I feel so surprisingly relieved now that it's done. I'm happy that now I get to focus on being the man that you deserve."

She doesn't say a word but reaches up on her toes and presses a soft tentative kiss to his lips. When she pulls back, she rests her forehead against his for a brief moment before lowering herself back down onto her feet. "Are you ready to go?" she asks him.

He nods his head and she threads her fingers with his. Jonathan maneuvers Maia onto his back for a piggy back ride back down the stairs instead of her trying to be helped down the stairs or someone trying to carry her bridal style. Jace sees Clary smile when she sees this and gives a small smile of his own at her, even though she doesn't see it because her eyes are still on her brother. With that one tiny smile of hers, he could see that she felt lighter than she did that morning when they woke up and she smiled at him. That look on her face is all he has ever wanted. Seeing the woman he is hopelessly and irrevocably in love with happy and free is the only thing in the world that matters to him, now and forever. He's just lucky enough that he gets to be part of making her feel that way. Never again will he be the reason that she hurts. Never.

* * *

 _Epilogue time!_

 _Thank you a trillion for taking time out of your day and reading my story. Don't forget to **follow** and **review**! Your feedback is more than welcome!_


	29. Chapter 29

_**Epilogue time!**_

* * *

July 4th...

It had been four and a half months since Alec was killed. As Jace looked to his left and saw his mother, Izzy, and Jocelyn chatting and laughing while Valentine and Jonathan were in a heated arm wresting match on the top of a picnic table, he knew that it had undoubtedly been the right choice. Clary was tucked tightly under his right arm where they were sitting on a blanket on the ground by the edge of the river, looking over towards Manhattan. The fireworks were going to be starting in the next thirty minutes or so and he couldn't wait till then. It was going to be absolutely beautiful from where they were sitting. It took him over a week to pick this particular spot because he wanted everything to be perfect. There was a line of shrubbery that acted as a barrier between their little area and the rest of the park, creating their own little private world away from other's eyes.

"What are you smiling about?" Clary asks, smiling up at him.

"Why wouldn't I smile?" he asks back. "I have the most beautiful and sexiest woman in the universe tucked under my arm who, just so happens, to be my soulmate and girlfriend. My mother seems to be happy again and we are about to have a front row seat to the world famous New York Fourth of July fireworks show. I am the happiest man in the world in this moment. Everything is perfect."

Clary looks over to everyone else as Valentine wins the arm wrestling match and Jonathan lets out a string of curse words which makes her laugh. "I guess you're right. After everything you and I and our families have been through, we seem to have figured out how to put our past behind us and focus on the future."

"You are just so incredible." he murmurs, pulling her face back to look at him. "Did you know that? I truly will never deserve to be with you. I'll never understand why, out of all the people in the world, you picked me to be with."

"In all honesty, I'm only with you for your looks." she says in a matter of fact tone. "Once those are gone, I will go too."

A wide smile lights up his face before he breaks out in laughter. "I _knew_ it!" he shouts out. "But, I'll take it. I'll take you any way I can get you."

She smiles a loving smile back at him before leaning in to press a soft kiss to his lips. "I love you." she tells him.

"I love you, too." he murmurs back to her. His hand that isn't wrapped around her skims across her cheek before tucking her hair behind her ear. He leans down again and kisses her again, his tongue pushing gently into her mouth. His heart jumps into his throat the way it always does when he kisses her like that, and then he is pulling back to look at her. She has the most contented smile on her pink lips while her eyes stay closed. "Thank you for forgiving me, for giving me a second chance." he whispers. Her eyes open up and her hand comes up to cup his face. "You don't have to keep thanking me for that." she tells him with a soft smile, her green eyes glittering at him.

"Yes, I do." he says back. "I'll never be able to say it enough." She leans in and places another soft kiss to his lips when he hears someone walk up behind them.

"Izzy and I are going to go for a walk along the water." Jonathan says looking down at the couple that is snuggled together on the blanket.

"The fireworks are starting soon so you should probably hurry." Clary tells them.

"We will." Izzy says. Jonathan throws his arm over her shoulders and pulls her into him as they turn and leave.

"I think we'll join them." Jocelyn says, walking up with her husband's hand clasped in hers. "It's such a beautiful night."

"Yes it is." Jace says to her. Clary turns her head back to the water and leans it on Jace's shoulder. "What time are we leaving tomorrow morning?" she asks him quietly. "I know the plane is at 11 but what time do you want to leave?"

"I don't know, babe. Whatever time you think is good." he answers. "Are you excited about our first vacation together?"

"You know I am." she says. Her fingers find his that are resting on his lap and she folds their hands together. "I'm most excited that I get to see you shirtless for a week straight while laying on the beaches of the Maldives."

"And I get to see you in a tiny bikini that you still won't show me. It makes a man's mind run wild with possibilities. Very _dirty_ possibilities." he whispers darkly into her ear before he gives it a quick nibble.

"Did you know that patience is a virtue?" she remarks back thoughtfully to him.

"I actually had no idea." He leans in with a goofy smile and presses a kiss to her awaiting mouth.

"You're being so loving tonight." she notices. "What's gotten into you?"

"I just want to make sure you know how much I love you. I always feel like I should show and tell you more than I do. I don't ever want you to doubt it. Ever."

She leans her forehead to his and closes her eyes. She's had to reassure him a million times since their brief, yet brutal breakup, that she knows that he loves her. It should bother her to have to tell him all of the time but she will never tire of him telling her that he loves her so much when he does say these things to her. "I know, babe." she whispers. "And I love you too. More than anything, ever."

After a few more minutes of comfortable silence, there is a loud boom overhead. They both turn their heads up towards the night sky and it lights up a brilliant white. "The fireworks are starting." Clary says, looking back to Jace.

"Here." Jace says, standing up and pulling Clary with him. "If we stand, you'll be able to see the fireworks reflecting in the water of the river. It's like we're getting two shows instead of one."

She smiles widely and looks out to the water. "You're right. I can see them." A flurry of fireworks go off then, the twinkling kind that are Clary's favorite. She can't hold back her smile as she looks up at them. "Look, babe. They're my favorite." She turns to make sure Jace is watching but when she turns to where he was just standing, he isn't there anymore.

"Clary." he says in an uncharacteristically soft voice from somewhere down near her stomach. She turns her head down to see him on one knee. "Jace?" she asks, momentarily confused.

He smiles at her confused face for a second before he continues, his eyes shining up at her in a way she's never seen before. They are almost glowing. "I knew from the moment I saw you in the restaurant that I loved you. There was never any doubt, not for one second, that you and I were meant to be together; that we were made for each other. I know that I was the biggest idiot in the world to you, but you, being the most incredible woman in the world that you are, decided to overlook that. I want to spend the rest of my life showing you just how much I love you. I want to show you every moment of every day of every single year till we die, hand in hand, just like in The Notebook."

Clary smiles big and lets out a breathy laugh as she reaches up and wipes away the tear that started to fall from one eye, realizing what he's doing. He knows that that movie and love story is her favorite.

"You, Seraphina Clarissa Morgenstern, are the love of my life, and you would make me the most insanely happy man in the universe if you would agree to be my wife. Will you marry me?" He pulls the ring he got five months ago from his pocket and holds it up for her. The fireworks overhead are reflecting off of the diamond and creating the most incredible web of colors she's ever seen. It's the most beautiful ring she's ever seen. "Oh my God, Jace." she says with a blinding smile. "Yes. Yes. Yes. A thousand times. I'll marry you."

His smile is absolutely radiant as he slips the ring on her finger and stands up. His hands come up to cup her face while his thumbs skim across her cheeks and wipe away the tears there. "I love you so damn much." he tells her.

"I love you, too." she says and then his lips are on hers. She flings her arms around his neck and deepens the kiss while the fireworks become more frequent. They are lighting up the sky and the sound of them is mimicking the sound of her heart that is beating almost unbearably hard in her chest. It's almost crushing how intense her love for him is right now. She pulls back but holds his face to hers. "I love you, I love you, I love you." she whispers.

He laughs once and the sound is so light and carefree. She opens her eyes to see his cheeks shining with his own tears. "Oh baby." she coos at him and wipes the wetness away from his cheeks. "You're crying."

"It's because you just made me the happiest man in the universe." Her heart swells some more and then they are kissing again. The fireworks are cresting and she knows that they are missing the finale and couldn't care less. This, right here, Jace, was her finale. She squeezes him tighter and he does the same as their mouths move in perfect sync with one another. She has to break away for a breath and can't control the half goofy, half sappy grin that pulls up her face when she opens her eyes to him. Her goofy, sappy grin is mirrored on Jace's face and then they are laughing. The fireworks stop then and then there is the sound of clapping that is oddly close to them.

She looks over to the shrubs that separate their little area from the rest of the park and sees her family and Jace's mother smiling hugely at them and clapping. Celine is wiping tears from her face while her father and mother smile lovingly at them. Izzy has a camera in her hand and it's obvious that she has been taking pictures the entire time. Both Clary and Jace begin to laugh for some unknown reason and then their family is walking toward them. Celine is the first to reach them and completely forgoes her son and wraps Clary in a tight hug. She whispers in her ear how happy she is that she's going to have her as a daughter now and how she is so proud of her son for picking someone so wonderful.

This causes a fresh round of tears to come streaming from her eyes which Celine wipes away with a tissue that she had ready to go. Clary hears her brother drop his voice and say to Jace that if he hurt her, he would kill him. "I don't doubt that for a second." Jace says with a smile and a clap on Jonathan's shoulder before pulling him into a bro hug. "Now," Jace says loudly when they pull away from each other, "if everyone doesn't mind, I'd like to take my _fiancée_ home so we can finish packing for our trip tomorrow."

"Yeah. Sure." Izzy says with a scoff. "Since I helped Clary finish packing this afternoon while you were there, I know what 'packing' really means when you say it."

Clary's mom and dad pull her into a hug and kiss her forehead and her hair before letting her go and stepping back to smile at her. "Go." her mom says to the newly engaged couple. "We'll pick everything up." she says indicating their blanket and basket of snack food and drinks.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Jace says with a cheery voice and then is pulling Clary by her hand, practically running towards his car. She giggles uncontrollably as she runs behind him, pulling him to a stop when they are halfway through the park. "What are you doing?" he asks her, a huge smile still on his face.

"Telling you that I love you and that I can't wait to kiss you any longer, so come here and kiss me." She pulls on his hand and he wraps his arms around her as she wraps hers around his. He leans in slowly, his eyes holding hers until they both close, and gives her the most extraordinary kiss she's ever had. _This moment is absolutely perfect_ she thinks to herself as they melt into each other, slowly creating one person in mind, body, and soul. _Absolutely perfect_

* * *

Approximately three years later...

"Be careful!" Jace says worriedly.

"I am being careful." Clary retorts back as she maneuvers the car seat that is carrying the newest member of their family through the doors to the penthouse. "He's not that breakable." They had just been released from the hospital where he was born two days ago.

"But he's just so tiny." Jace coos as he looks down at his sleeping son. "Here, you probably shouldn't be carrying him anyway. You just had a baby." He reaches out and takes the car seat from Clary who shuts the door behind them. She looks up and rolls her eyes at Jace being so overprotective as she is left standing at the door. Jace walks into the living room and can be heard talking to him and showing him around.

"And this," Jace points up to the wall, "...is a picture of when Mommy and Daddy got engaged." It's a picture that Izzy took of the two of them kissing while fireworks exploded overhead. It's, hands down, her favorite one of them. "And this is where you were probably conceived." he says and points to the couch.

"Oh my gosh, Jace. Don't tell him that." she chides him. "That's gross to him."

Jace sets the car seat down on the couch and unbuckles the sleeping blonde haired baby. He lifts him up and out of the car seat and smiles widely when he stretches his little body and makes those cute baby noises that babies make. "Don't wake him up." Clary says, walking over to her men. "He's barely slept today with all of the excitement of coming home." She slowly lowers herself onto the couch carefully and sighs with relief when she leans back and closes her eyes. She feels Jace move the car seat next to her and then he is sliding an arm around her waist as he sits next to her. She opens her eyes to see him cradling little Stephen Blake in his arms and smiling over at her. "He's just so perfect, just like you." he says.

"Blake _is_ pretty damn perfect." she murmurs to him and reaches out to grab his tiny little foot. She leans her head on her husband's shoulder while they both stare at him for a while. "Oh, I've been meaning to tell you that Sebastian and Kaelie finally set a wedding date." Clary says to Jace.

"It's about time." he says with a yawn. He must be just as tired as she is. He barely slept a wink at the hospital. "I just still can't get over how weird the whole thing is. I mean, she dated Jonathan for two years and you dated Sebastian for two years. It's crazy to think that they were actually the ones that would get married out of the whole bunch."

"I know but it seems to work for them. It was really weird at first but seeing them together like that, it makes sense. I wonder how Jon and I never noticed how perfect they are for each other before."

"Speaking of weddings, I am supposed to go get fitted for my tux for Jon and Izzy's wedding next week."

"I'm just glad that they pushed the wedding back when they found out my due date was the same as the first wedding date they set." Clary says with a yawn of her own. "It would have been a toss up if we were going to be able to be there because of this little guy."

"Sweetie." Jace says squeezing her into his side. "Take a nap. You're so tired."

"So are you." she counters. "You should take a nap as well."

"How about we all take a nap? Blake is still out like a light and I'll bet I can set him down and he won't make a peep." Jace leans forward and reaches out to grab the playpen in the living room and pulls it closer to them. He raises up and lays his son down in the bed with a thin blanket covering him before pulling it as close to the couch as possible. He leans back to where he was and tucks Clary back under his arm and pulls her down next to him to lay on the couch. She snuggles closer into him as he looks down to watch Blake sleep with his wife tucked under his arm. _This is the most perfect moment, ever_ he thinks to himself as his eyes drift close, his exhaustion finally creeping up and overwhelming him. He falls asleep with a smile on his face, knowing without a doubt, that he is the luckiest man in the universe.

* * *

 _Yay! They got their happy ending! Sorry if it was short but I'm not sure where I could have taken it after what I wrote._

 _I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do next. I am either going to do a Clary and Jace version of Everything, Everything or do an original story. I'm not sure yet. In the meantime, I'm just going to write for my smutty one shots for Clace and Clonathan so check those out if you want._

 _Thank all of you SO DAMN MUCH for reading my story and reviewing. This was, by far, my most successful story yet and that's because of y'all. Seriously, thanks a million. My writing is getting better with every story (which is why I started writing fanfic in the first place) and so I am excited to see what I come out with next. I hope it lives up to whatever expectations that y'all have. Till next time, have a fantastic day/month/year/life! It is what you make it!_


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